


Midnight Love

by ultra_violett



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, But I don’t care, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Gay Will Byers, M/M, Mike Wheeler Being an Asshole, Mike Wheeler doesn’t deserve Will or El, Siblings Will Byers & Eleven | Jane Hopper, Sorry Not Sorry, Will Byers & Maxine "Max" Mayfield Friendship, Will Byers Is Not Okay, Will Byers Loves Mike Wheeler, Will Byers Needs a Hug, Will Byers is a dumbass in this, so here’s a long ass oneshot, this probably should have been multiple chapters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-14 08:42:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 27,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29293086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ultra_violett/pseuds/ultra_violett
Summary: And Will wants to pull away because he should be distancing himself to make it easier on the both of them when he has to end this thing, but all he can think about right now is Mike, Mike, Mike, and the burning he feels everywhere Mike is touching him, his hand, his knee, his face because Mike’s gaze feels like a laser burning holes into him, it always does.Or in which Mike Wheeler and Will Byers are secretly together, even while Mike’s got a girlfriend.
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper/Mike Wheeler, Eleven | Jane Hopper/Original Female Character(s), Jonathan Byers/Nancy Wheeler, Jonathan Byers/Steve Harrington, Joyce Byers/Jim "Chief" Hopper, Maxine "Max" Mayfield/Lucas Sinclair, Robin Buckley/Nancy Wheeler, Will Byers/Mike Wheeler, Will Byers/Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	Midnight Love

**Author's Note:**

> hey, this is gross i hate it but have it anyway because i haven’t made a byler fic in like a year and i just spent like four months writing this so i don’t want all that to go to waste. hope you enjoy, sorry it’s not multiple chapters but i decided to just make it one super long chapter. it’s going to take place over the span of like, two years? i think? sorry i’m rambling. enjoy!
> 
> playlist:  
> ♡pacify her-melanie martinez  
> ♡the cut that always bleeds-conan gray  
> ♡youth-troye sivan  
> ♡boys don’t cry  
> ♡ribs-lorde  
> ♡scary love-the neighbourhood  
> ♡sweater weather-the neighbourhood  
> ♡keeping a secret-bleachers  
> ♡mr loverman-ricky montgomery  
> ♡*sobs quietly*-mom jeans  
> ♡should i stay or should i go-the clash  
> ♡me and michael-mgmt  
> ♡midnight love-girl in red

_December 20, 1985_

Will sighs as he sees the Wheeler’s car pull up into the driveway. They were visiting for Christmas, a time Will usually loves, because he gets to see Mike. Only now, he’s begun to hate it, hate having any opportunity to see Mike. Because now, Mike’s got him wrapped around his finger, he always has, only now it’s much, much worse.

Because they’ve been doing something they really shouldn’t have been. They’ve been sneaking around, calling each other in the middle of the night and sneaking kisses when no one else is looking. And Will feels bad, he really does, because Mike is still dating El. 

But the guilt always seems to go away as soon as Mike’s holding Will’s hand under the table at dinner, or when he’s got his hand on Will’s thigh at the back of the dark movie theater, where El could look over at any time and see. 

And Will knows he should end it, but he doesn’t have the heart to. Not when he feels happier around Mike now, knowing Mike loves him back. Not when Mike has that fond glimmer in his eye every time he’s around the smaller boy. Not when Will loves Mike.

There’s a knock on the front door downstairs, one Will knows is Karen Wheeler’s because he recognizes her soft knock by now. After ten years of knowing someone, you learn a lot about them. You’re able to recognize them by their footsteps, or their knock on the door. 

So that’s how Will knows, with his stomach sinking from anxiety, that when there’s a knock on his bedroom door it’s Mike Wheeler. Because El isn’t home right now, she’s off at some girl’s house for a school project even though the project isn’t due until the end of January, even though the teacher had specifically told the class they were only getting assigned partners and subjects for the project the day before Christmas break so they could get to thinking about how they wanted to do it. 

He sighs and finally turns away from the window, walking over to the door and opening it. Behind it, as he figured, was Michael Wheeler, already reaching out, placing a gentle hand on Will’s cheek. And Will, as much as he doesn’t want to, leans into the touch, leans into Mike as he leans forward and plants a gentle kiss on Will’s lips. 

And then they’re pulling away, before Will can protest.

Mike smiles at him, his hand dropping from Will’s cheek to instead take his hand. He rubs across the smaller boy’s knuckles as he speaks. “Hey.” Mike whispers, Will’s stomach flipping as he does. “Hi.” Will breathes out, grasping Mike’s hand back. “I missed you.” Will sighs, silently, so Mike doesn’t hear it, and smiles back. “I missed you too.” He murmurs, though he knows he shouldn’t. Though he knows he shouldn’t be holding Mike’s hand in secret, knows his heart shouldn’t be fluttering, his lips shouldn’t be tingling from Mike’s kiss. He knows what he’s doing is wrong. But he doesn’t care, because he’s in love, and love, it’s a drug. Just like people say, it’s a drug, and it’s addicting, and no matter how terrible something is, when you’re in love, it’s difficult to say no.

Then they hear someone coming up the stairs, and Mike’s panicking, dropping Will’s hand. He’s walking inside Will’s room, shutting the door and jumping on the bed. The door opens just as Will is sitting down at his desk, curtesy of Karen Wheeler. Her hand is on the doorknob as she smiles at the two boys. 

“Hey, Will. It’s good to see you.” Will nods in response, heart thumping heavily in his chest. He was sure he and Mike were going to get caught. “Joyce says we’re having spaghetti for dinner, just wanted to let you two boys know. I’ll leave you alone now.” She says, and then she’s gone, closing the door with a quiet click behind her. Mike lets out a sigh of relief from his spot on the bed. Will looks over at him, heart now starting to calm down.

Mike doesn’t speak, only stands from the bed to walk over to the window next to Will’s desk and close the curtains. The room goes a bit darker, and Will can’t help but think about how attractive Mike looks in the darker lighting. Mike turns to smile at him before exiting the room without another word.

☆☆☆

Dinner, is, as always, filled with chatter. Extra chairs are pulled up to the table to suit the five Wheelers, food is dished out to everyone, and they talk about things going on in their lives now, Nancy and Jonathan sneak fond, love filled glances to each other, Mike and Will hold hands under the table, not really holding, just resting. El rests her head on Mike’s shoulder in between bites, despite how inconvenient it is. All is well. Except for Jonathan’s weird glances at Will occasionally, when no one else is looking.

After dinner, Joyce puts in a movie for everyone to watch. And after the movie, everyone bids goodnight to go to their own respective rooms. Mostly, at least. Karen, Ted, and Holly take the guest room, Mike rooms with Will, and Nancy, though Will knows she doesn’t really want to and would rather room with Jonathan, rooms with El. 

Will ignores the weird looks he was getting from Jonathan, until Mike goes to brush his teeth and suddenly Jonathan is in his room, sitting on his bed. The door’s closed, and Will tries his best not to look anxious as Jonathan scans him, analyzes his body language. But Jonathan knows him too well, he knows it. There’s no point in acting, Jonathan’s already got him figured out. He knows Will’s body language like the back of his hand, kudos to when Will got stuck in the upside down and was constantly masking how he was really feeling, and Jonathan was always there to call him out on his bullshit. 

“What’s going on?” Jonathan asks. Will clears his throat, avoids Jonathan’s piercing gaze. “Nothing.” He murmurs, though they both know it’s a lie. He feels guilty for what he’s doing with Mike, and though he was okay at masking it at first, he’s gotten careless. If Joyce wasn’t so wrapped up in her relationship with Hopper, and El so stressed from school, he’s sure they would have noticed by now too.

“Don’t lie to me, please. I just want to know what’s going on, you’re acting anxious, you’re on edge. And it’s only when Mike’s here.” Will sighs, looking down at where he’s fiddling with his fingers. “Promise you won’t judge, or-or tell anyone?” Jonathan doesn’t hesitate to nod with a smile. “Of course.” Will sighs again.

“Mike and I, we-we’ve been doing something, behind everyone’s backs. I know it’s bad, but I can’t help it, I-I just love him and it’s so hard so say no.” Jonathan’s the one to sigh this time. “You’ve been sneaking around? Will-” Jonathan’s interrupted by Will. “I know it’s bad, Jonathan, please, I know it’s bad, but I can’t- I can’t-” He’s interrupted by a sob, followed by hot, salty tears streaming down his face. Jonathan reaches forward, placing a soothing hand on Will’s shoulder. “I know what it’s like, trust me. I went through it with Nancy. But if she had asked me to do something like that behind Steve’s back, I still would’ve said no, despite how difficult it would have been. Because it’s not right. I’m not going to yell at you or anything, and I’m going to drop it after this. Because it’s your responsibility to do what’s right, and I trust you will. And if you don’t, just know whatever’s going to happen is going to be worse the longer you keep this up.” Will nods with another sob. “I-I know.” He mutters, reaching up with a shaking hand to wipe the tears away. Jonathan stands from Will’s bed to crouch in front of him and pull the smaller boy into a hug. Will tries his best to reciprocate it despite how shaky he is, squeezing Jonathan tight. 

Jonathan pulls away soon after. “Wipe those tears away, okay?” He says, and Will nods again, using the sleeve of his Christmas themed pajama shirt to wipe them away. He winces when he sees the wet spots it leaves behind, hoping Mike won’t notice. “Goodnight, Will.” Jonathan murmurs, turning and walking out of the room. Mike is luckily nowhere to be seen in the hallway, and Will can hear El’s giggle down the hallway, accompanied by Mike’s slightly louder laugh, so he knows Mike must be spending time with her for a few minutes.

Will sighs shakily, turning in his seat to face the drawing he was working on when Jonathan walked in. It’s a drawing of him and Mike. They’re laying in a flower field, Will with a flower crown messily hanging on his head, and Mike with a flower tucked behind his ear. Mike’s hair is haloed out around him, and they both have big smiles on their faces. Their hands are interlocked, and Will wishes, as he closes his sketchbook and puts it away, that the scene was real, and not just something he imagined. That they could have actually lain in that field, laughing at some stupid joke, and were able to be dumb teenagers, just for one day, just for one moment.

☆☆☆

_December 21, 1985_

Will wakes up the next morning with the harsh glare of sunlight in his face, and Mike no longer cuddled up next to him, despite that being how the two fell asleep. Although, now that he thinks about it, he’s not sure Mike fell asleep like that, perhaps Will was the only one to fall asleep. Though it doesn’t matter, because either way Mike is asleep in his sleeping bag, across the room. Will smiles at how peaceful Mike looks, before standing from the bed. He shudders a bit as his bare feet hit the cold wood floor. He smiles even wider when he sees, through the small crack in his curtains, snow fluttering down out of the sky. He’s always loved snow, especially when he and Mike would go outside and build snowmen and have snowball fights with each other. And even when Dustin and Lucas came along and did the same with them, laughing despite the chill resting in their bones all day, before stumbling inside right before dinner and immediately being handed hot cocoa, thanking Mrs. Wheeler, because it was always the Wheelers’ house they went to.

But now, Mike says they’re too old for that. Too old to sled or make snowmen or drink hot cocoa after spending all day out in the snow or fighting over a heater while a cheesy Christmas movie plays on the TV. Too old to have fun.

Will sighs, reaching forward to close the curtains, because the sight of the snow is only going to make him sad. He hears Mike groan behind him, knows that means he’s awake, and leaves the room as fast and as quietly as he can. Because he knows he’s going to first have to distance himself from Mike before he can break off what they have, though he knows it’s going to hurt no matter how much the two have been distanced from each other.

Joyce is downstairs making waffles for everyone. Other than Hopper, she seems to be the only one awake other than Will, who smiles at her as she glances over at him before sitting down at the dining table. 

She gives him his plate of waffles not too much later, with a tired looking smile and a kiss on the head. “Why’re you up so early?” She asks him as she grabs herself a plate of waffles as well and sits across from him. He shrugs, though he knows he hadn’t slept well all night, because he’s stressed out. This thing he has going on with Mike, it’s stressing him out badly. And he hates it, but there’s nothing he can really do about it. He’s already planning on ending it, so all he can really do is deal with the stress until it ends and he has nothing left to stress about.

“Well, it’s snowing, which means probably playing out in the snow all day, unless you let Mike convince you that you’re too old for that again this year.” Joyce says, taking a slow sip of her coffee afterwards. Will sighs and shakes his head. “No, I’ll play outside this year. Who cares if I’m too old? You’re never too old to have fun.” Joyce smiles at her son, reaching forward to ruffle his hair. “Exactly, honey. Glad you’ve realized that.” She says, now looking a little more perky as they hear another set of footsteps coming down the stairs. They both turn to see Mike standing in the doorway a minute later, rubbing tiredly at one of his eyes. Bedhead still litters his hair, sleep still obvious in his eyes.

“Good morning, Mike. I made breakfast.” Joyce says with a smile, pointing over at the stack of waffles on the counter. Mike smiles tiredly back, responding with a quick and quiet “Morning.” Before walking over to the waffles and grabbing some. He sits down next to Will, silently sliding his hand down to grab Will’s thigh. And though Will knows he should scoot away, he doesn’t, so as not to draw attention to himself. But he doesn’t look at Mike either, like he usually does when Mike shows him affection, because that’s the way he shows it back, it’s always in Will’s eyes when he looks at Mike, just how much he cares for the ravenette. But today he doesn’t show it. Mike makes a quiet noise of distaste, one Will knows only he can hear, but doesn’t move his hand. 

More people trickle down stairs slowly, eating breakfast and engaging in tired small talk about the plans for the day while waiting for everyone to wake up. Jonathan continues glancing over at Will every now and then, but this time Will looks away as soon as he sees it, looks down at the hand on his thigh, and hopes that maybe if he looks hard enough, Mike will sense it and move the hand. But he doesn’t move it, doesn’t even really pay attention to Will. 

Eventually everyone leaves the dining area to get into their snow clothes, before meeting out in the backyard. And the day is spent just how Will used to spend his days with The Party when he was younger during the winter, making snowmen and having snowball fights and sledding. Only now, Mike doesn’t do the same. He sits on the back porch with Ted, and watches Will. Wonders what’s going on with him, why he’s acting weird today. Why he isn’t in his room with Mike, drawing or watching a movie or making out like Mike had hoped. 

Mike is the last thought on Will’s mind the whole day. Because he’s too busy playing and enjoying the snow and being a dumb fifteen year old to think about the other boy. 

At the end of the day, Joyce is at the door as soon as the kids go inside to hand them freshly made hot chocolate, and a cheesy Christmas movie is already in the VHS player in the living room. They spend the rest of the day watching said movie, joking around, throwing candy at each other and laughing loudly, not even paying attention to the movie playing. And once the movie is over Joyce is there again to tell the kids, including Nancy and Jonathan, that it’s time for bed.

Will and Mike make their way to Will’s room, Mike closing the door and crossing his arms as he turns to face Will as soon as he’s inside the room. Will just stares innocently at him from where he’s sitting at his desk as he takes his hoodie off. The hoodie Mike gave him years ago, the one with a Star Wars logo on it. The one that’s a size or two too big because it was Mike’s.

“What the hell, Will? I thought we were going to do what we always do, just this time with some making out or something-” Will cuts him off. “I wanted to act like a dumb kid and have fun, so what Mike? Just because you’ve got a stick up your ass or something doesn’t mean I do.” Will sighs out with an eye roll. Before he knows it, Mike is there, leaning down in front of him, with his arms on each side of Will’s body, so he has nowhere to escape. Will looks up at him, an emotion on his face, in his eyes, that Mike can’t quite read.

“Don’t act like that, Will.” He mutters, right in Will’s face. Will sighs, and goes to push Mike’s arm away from where it’s caging him in, only for Mike to quickly grab his wrist the second it comes within an inch of Mike’s own arm. Will looks back up at Mike, away from his arm, the emotion on his face still unreadable, but much more prominent. “Mike, stop it, now. I just want to go take a shower because I’m all sweaty after spending all day outside and then I want to go to bed.” Mike doesn’t listen, only slightly loosens his grip. “Don’t act like a brat, Will.” He murmurs into Will’s ear before finally letting go of his wrist and backing away so Will can stand. Will rubs his wrist-which is now red-for a minute before standing and walking out of the room without another word.

Mike watches as he leaves with a sigh, before turning to face the desk. He reaches up and quickly closes the curtains, just as he had the day before, only now to block out the view of the snowman Will made earlier that day. He walks backwards until he flops down on the bed, his hair haloing around his head, and stays like that until Will comes back.

☆☆☆

_December 25, 1985_

Mike is abruptly awoken by an excited Will Byers hovering over him, a hand wrapped around his shoulder to shake him awake. His face holds a smile that spreads from ear to ear. “Mike!” He exclaims, causing Mike to groan but respond anyway. “What?” He asks, more quietly than Will’s speaking because he’s sure it’s early and he doesn’t want to wake anyone else up. “It’s Christmas!” Mike laughs and shrugs his arm out of Will’s hold so he could sit up. He knew it was Christmas, Will only ever gets that excited for holidays, mainly Christmas and Halloween. 

“Is anyone else awake?” Will shakes his head timidly. “No, but I just woke up really really early and I tried to go back to sleep but I couldn’t and then I tried to draw but I couldn’t think of what to draw so I just figured you could keep me company until everyone else wakes up but if you want to go back to sleep then you can-” Mike cuts off Will’s ramble. “I’ll stay up with you, Will.” Will smiles again, wider than before, if that’s even humanly possible. 

“Okay, so what do you wanna do?” Will asks, walking over to his desk and flopping down on the desk chair. Mike shrugs, sleep still clouding his brain as he runs a hand through his messy bedhead. He makes a mental note to tell his mom he needs a haircut as he watches a shit ton of curls fall out of his hand and cover his forehead and the top of his eyes. He swipes it away quickly, so he can actually see, only for it to fall right back into his face almost immediately.

Will watches in silence. Mike looks forward at him with a small smile, despite how agitated he is at his hair right now. Will smiles back and stands to walk toward Mike, grabbing something from the nightstand next to the bed as he does. He sits down in front of Mike, both boys now sitting criss cross, their knees touching, as he reaches forward with a hand, the hand not holding whatever the fuck he picked up from the bedside table, and pushes the hair out of Mike’s face. With the other hand, he pops open what Mike can now identify as a pink hair clip, and gently slips it into Mike’s hair before popping it closed.

He leans back once he’s done, the hair now out of Mike’s face. Mike smiles again, reaching up to run his fingers over the pink hair clip in his hair, holding his curls back. Will thinks he looks nice, thinks the pink contrasts against his hair nicely.

“Where the fuck did you get pink hair clips?” Mike asks, reaching forward with his left hand to grab Will’s hand gently in his own, his right hand resting against his clothed knee. And Will wants to pull away because he should be distancing himself to make it easier on the both of them when he has to end this thing, but all he can think about right now is _Mike, Mike, Mike_ , and the burning he feels everywhere Mike is touching him, his hand, his knee, his face because Mike’s gaze feels like a laser burning holes into him, it always does.

But he still can’t resist that laserlike gaze. Because he loves the raven haired boy sitting in front of him.

“El gave some to me, she thought I’d look cute with them, but I didn’t like them very much.” Will explains, as calmly as he can muster, despite how hard his heart is beating because _Mike is touching him_. 

“I’m sure you look cute in them.” Mike says with a smile, the image of Will with pink hair clips in his hair in Mike’s mind. “Maybe, but I just don’t really like wearing them.” Will says with a shrug, silently pulling his hand away from Mike’s. And though Mike goes to grab it again, Will again pulls his hand away, reaches up to push some hair out of his face and behind his ear before dropping his hand onto the bed again. But he doesn’t let Mike grab it again. 

And when Mike goes to ask what’s going on with Will, why he’s acting like this, Will walks out of the room and to the bathroom across the hall before he can, leaving him to sit in the darkness of Will’s bedroom, the only light being the rising sun through a crack in the curtains.

☆☆☆

A few hours later, once everyone’s awake, the Wheelers and the Byers all sit in the living room, staring at the Christmas tree as Joyce sorts the presents out for everyone. It’s something they always do, though it makes them impatient as fuck, but it’s easier than four teens and a toddler all rustling around under the tree for their gifts.

And once she’s gotten everything sorted out, she finally steps away and lets the kids run over and open their gifts. Will has four gifts; one from Jonathan and El, one from Joyce and Hopper, one from the Wheelers, and one from The Party.

His first gift, the one from Joyce and Hopper, was new colored pencils. Like, the really good, expensive colored pencils. The second gift, the one from Jonathan and El, was Jonathan’s old camera, with film, because Jonathan had just gotten a new camera so he decided to give Will his old one, with the hopes that Will would be interested in photography like Jonathan. The third gift, the one from the Wheelers, was a new DnD game, because he had gotten rid of his old one with the intention that when the Wheelers came over Mike would bring his, but more often than not it was forgotten in the basement of the Wheelers’ home. And the fourth gift, the one from the whole Party, was something simple. A new game for the atari he had gotten two years ago, but really never played on. 

And once everyone had gotten their gifts upstairs and put away in their respective places, for the Wheelers that being their bags, and for the Byers, that being their bedrooms, the Wheelers were left to pack their bags, because the next day they were leaving, going back to Hawkins, Indiana. But Will, he still hadn’t broken up with Mike, and he felt bad for it, so he got to thinking about how to go about it.

But by the time they were leaving the next day, Mike and Will had still been exchanging sneaky kisses in Will’s bedroom with smiles on their faces and their hands clasped tightly.

☆☆☆

_March 22, 1986_

Will breathes in for a second before breathing right back out to blow out the candles on the birthday cake sitting in front of him. A smile spreads on his face as Jonathan, as always, reaches over to poke him on the shoulder and ask what he wished for, though he can’t tell. Will’s smile drops at the question, though any other year it would bring a laugh. But this year, he didn’t ask for something good, or, maybe it would be considered good? He isn’t quite sure of if what he wished for was good or bad. He just knows his wish is unlike any other he’s wished. Because usually he would wish for something material, or maybe a relationship, or to just be normal or something. But this year he wished for Mike to be his, for everything with Mike to work out in the end and for Mike to choose him.

He guesses the wish isn’t necessarily _bad_ , just very, very selfish. He could care less, though. 

Joyce slyly slides a set of keys across the table to him, the keys to his new car. Though the car wouldn’t technically be considered _new_ , it was Jonathan’s before it was Will’s, but it’s new to him, because he’s never had a car before. As for Jonathan, well, he bought himself a new car about a month before to prepare for the day Will would get a car, because he knew that if he hadn’t Will might not have even gotten a car at all. And though that thought doesn’t really make Will sad, he could care less if he had a car or not, it had definitely effected Jonathan, enough to for him to buy a new car, and had effected Joyce enough to start working yet _another_ job to get more money and for Hopper to start working a longer than usual.

He smiles and takes the keys, admiring the way they shine in the light coming in through the thin curtains covering the window in the dining room before sticking them in his pocket. Though he couldn’t have cared less if he had gotten a car, actually getting one does definitely make him feel giddy, and a little nervous, despite Jonathan having spent hours teaching him how to drive over the past year every time he came home from college, and by now Will was basically a master at it. All he needed now was his licence, which he would be getting in a week.

“I wish I could drive.” El sighs out, her chin resting on her hand. Will smiles up at her. “I can drive you around, if you want.” He offers. She shrugs in response. “You’ll be able to drive soon, El. Only another month.” Hopper mutters, clearly ready to just get the presents done so that everyone can have cake. Not many people had gotten Will gifts this year, luckily for Hopper, because they had figured the car would be enough. El had gotten Will a gift because she was really the only one that hadn’t chipped in all that much for the car, so she quickly takes wrapped gift and hands it to him. 

“It’s not much, but I got what I could afford.” She says with a bit of an anxious smile. Will shrugs, taking the gift from her and setting it in front of him, in the place where the cake just was. “You really didn’t have to get me anything, the car was really all I was expecting from this birthday.” He says, unwrapping the present slowly. He smiles when he sees it’s a sketchbook and some pencils. “Like I said, it’s not much, you’ve just been saying how much you needed a knew sketchbook and stuff but couldn’t afford it so I thought I would-” Will cuts into El’s anxious rambling, sensing Hopper’s impatience to just get to the fucking cake. “It’s fine, El. I really like it, I can finally get back to drawing now that I have a sketchbook. Thank you.” El shrugs again, going to rest her chin on her hand again. “It’s no problem.” She mutters, going back to the weird, edgy persona she had taken on these past few months. She had recently gotten into this new group of friends, the edgy emo kids, and had taken up their style and personalities and such. Nobody had really minded the heavy makeup and dark clothes at first, though now it’s starting to get pretty annoying, the constant need of hers to act edgy, even just around family. But nobody said anything to her, because Joyce was constantly saying she was just trying to find herself, or maybe she had found herself and this was who she was. Will, on the other hand, knew El was just trying to come off as cool or trendy, but would never say it. 

☆☆☆

Later that night, after everyone went to bed, Will stands from his bed, wincing at the creak the floor makes when his full body weight lands on it, and walks over to his door. He slowly opens it, so as not to make a noise, and quickly but quietly sneaks downstairs.

He goes to the phone in the kitchen, picking it up off the wall and putting in the number he knows like the back of his hand. The number to the Wheelers’ house. 

It only rings once before someone, Mike Wheeler, answers the phone. Will can tell he’s smiling just from the way he says “Hey.” 

“Happy birthday.” He says, before Will can respond with a ‘hey’ back. Will smiles as well, the way he always smiles when he’s talking to Mike, or even at the thought of Mike. “Thanks.” He whispers back. “Sorry I wasn’t there with you. I’m sure you were really happy to have gotten a car, wish I could have seen your face.” Will laughs a little, though nothing Mike said was funny.

“I wish you were here too, but I understand that you couldn’t have been.” Will murmurs, taking a quick glance around the doorway when he hears the floor creak. When he doesn’t see anyone he shrugs it off, thinking it’s probably just the house settling, and goes back to listening to Mike talking. 

“You know, now I’m older than you.” Will says with a laugh. Mike huffs on the other side of the line. “Yeah, yeah. Shut the fuck up.” Will laughs again, trying his best to keep quiet but failing a bit. He hears the floor creak again, this time looking out the door and seeing none other than a less than amused looking Jonathan. His smile quickly drops, and he is just as quick to tell Mike he has to go and place the phone back on the wall.

Jonathan is leaning against the doorframe, his arms crossed across his chest. Will looks down at his bare feet, already knowing he’s about to get a lecture or at least a talking to from Jonathan.

“Will…” Jonathan sighs out, and Will nods. “I know.” He murmurs, still not looking at Jonathan. “I thought you were going to end it.” Will nods again. “I-I will. Eventually. But I just can’t bring myself to do it.” Jonathan sighs and crosses the room, stopping right in front of Will. Will thinks, for a horrible second, that Jonathan might hit him. But rather, he sweeps his little brother up into a bone crushing hug, one where Will’s head rests on Jonathan’s shoulder and Jonathan’s chin rests on Will’s head. 

They stay like that for a few minutes, or what feels like a few minutes to Will, until Jonathan is pulling away. “Soon. I promise.” Will murmurs, earning a nod from Jonathan. “No more late night calls, though, okay?” Will nods before making a beeline towards the stairs. He’s about to walk upstairs until Jonathan stops him. “And, Will?” Will turns to face his brother in the dark kitchen, just the general area he thinks he would be. “I love you, okay? Don’t forget that.” Will nods with a small smile. “I love you too.” He mutters before running upstairs and going to bed.

☆☆☆

_June 5, 1986_

Will sighs as the last bell of the school day rings. Finally his sophomore year is over, and he gets to relax for three months before he really has to buckle down for two more years so he can get into a good college and get a good job.

He waits for everyone else to leave the room, watches the different teens socialize with their friends as they walk by and ignores the bullies purposefully bumping into his desk. He waits because he’s learned over the past two years of high school that because he’s smaller, people won’t hesitate to push him around. And because he’s gay, too. Though usually people won’t push him around _just because_ he’s gay, though he is called quite a few names because of it. But he has no idea how the kids at school knows, he has no friends to come out to, no one to know and spill it to everyone else. Maybe it’s the hair, he thinks.

He finally exits the room once everyone else is out and the hallway has gotten significantly quieter, smiling at the teacher as she gives him a “Have a good summer, Will.” El is out in the hallway waiting on him, like every other day, right next to his locker, which is across the hall. He smiles at her and makes his way over, shuffling his backpack on his back and poking her on the shoulder so she’ll notice him. She’s still edgy, her hair now with purple ‘highlights’ as she called them. She’s wearing an AC/DC crop top, a band Will had literally never heard of before, and ripped jeans with a pair of Doc Martens, which were so expensive even Hopper wouldn’t buy them for her, she had to buy them with the money she had gotten from her new job at the barbershop down the street from their house.

Her nails are painted a chipped black color, and her face is caked in heavy eyeliner, dark eyeshadow, and black lipstick. Oddly enough, she can pull it off, though. 

“Hey, Will. Ready to go?” Will nods. Though El now had her driver’s license, she still didn’t have her own car because Joyce and Hopper didn’t quite have enough for another one. Her and Will took turns driving, though, so it didn’t really matter to her that the car wasn’t hers, because at least she got to drive every other day and whenever she needed to go out without Will. Today, though, Will was driving.

“Yeah, you?” El sighs with a smile. “Hell yeah, let’s get out of this shithole.” She states. Will smiles and begins to walk out of the school with El in tow. As soon as the two are outside, El turns towards the school and flips it off with both hands, though she’ll still have to go back for two more years. 

And then the two are running towards the parked car, laughing loudly, not a care in the world, just being stupid teenagers.

By the time they get inside the car they’re sweating and laughing so hard they can barely breath. But Will doesn’t care, because for once he’s thinking about something other than Mike while he’s looking at El. Usually all he can see when he looks at her is Mike smiling, Mike holding her hand, Mike dancing with her at the Snowball, Mike kissing her. But right now all he can see is El, laughing loudly, her hair wild.

For once, he’s happy when he looks at her.

☆☆☆

_June 6, 1986_

She comes in his room the next day holding a needle and a lighter, and some sort of piercing Will had never seen before. He knows, though, as soon as he sees the devious smile on her face, that this isn’t going to be good. 

“I need your help.” She states, sitting down on Will’s bed. She places the stuff down in front of her as Will stares at her from his spot at his desk. 

“With what?” He asks, reaching backward and closing his sketchbook so she doesn’t see what he was drawing, which was the same thing he’s been working on for literal months, because he can just never get it right; the drawing of him and Mike in a flower field.

Whether it be Mike’s freckles or his smile or his hair, it never seems to be right, no matter what Will does. So he continues to work on it, even now. 

“I…” El pauses, as though thinking about the right way to say this. And if it hadn’t of screamed _bad_ to Will as soon as she walked into the room, it definitely does now. “Want to pierce my belly button, but sadly can’t reach it myself so I was thinking you could help?” Will’s eyes widen in surprise at the thought of El piercing herself… Really anywhere. But her belly button, of all places? It’s not a new concept, Will has seen various girls around the school with them or even just around the town, but he never thought El would want one, let alone give herself one.

“Uh- I-” Will sputters with his words, trying to think of what to say. “Are you really sure about this? Because you can’t really go back once you have a piercing, you know. Sure, you can take it out but it’ll probably leave a scar or something or what if it gets infected or-” El cuts Will off with an amused laugh. “Yes, I know the risks. And I still want to do it. Please?” Will sighs, but takes the lighter, belly button ring, and needle from her regardless. “What do I do?” El smiles.

“Just burn the edge of the needle, to sterilize it, and then just stick it… Here.” She says, pointing to the very messy dot she had drawn where she was pretty sure the piercing should be. “And then stick the ring in after it. It shouldn’t be too hard… I think?” Will takes a deep breath and begins to do what El said, starting by sterilizing the needle.

“Shouldn’t we… have ice or something?” Will says as he places the needle on the dot above El’s belly button. El laughs and shakes her head. “I literally dug a tiny piece of shadow monster out of my leg last year, I think I’ll be fine.” She states, pointing to the long scar that runs up her leg that a shit ton of people always felt the need to ask about, to which she always responded with “Fell off my bike, slid across a piece of glass on the side of the road.” Which, as terrible of an answer as it was, people believed it. 

Will takes in a shaky breath, trying his best to steady his even shakier hands. “You know mom and Hopper are going to kill you, right?” He says. El begins to laugh, only for Will to shove the needle through her skin halfway through the laugh and immediately cutting it off. He tries his best to fumble the piercing through the hole in her skin.

He takes the needle away and drops it on his bed, in between the two, as soon as he’s done, and takes another deep breath before looking up at El, who is now inspecting the piercing. She gives him a thumbs up when she sees it looks straight, and isn’t bleeding, or abnormal looking whatsoever.

“Thanks.” She says, sounding a little breathless, but happy nevertheless. “It looks… cool.” Will says, looking down at the piercing now that he isn’t having a panic attack anymore. And he hadn’t lied, El can actually pull it off pretty well. 

“Jesus Christ, though. Don’t-Don’t make me pierce you anymore, please. I was shaking really fucking bad, _oh my God._ ” Will says, not able to take his eyes off the shiny piercing now. He can’t lie, he is pretty good at piercing, even with his hands shaking as bad as they were and his breathing even shakier. “ _Hopper’s gonna kill me._ ” He breathes out, the sudden realization making him jump into yet another panic attack. El laughs and reaches forward to grab Will by the shoulders. He looks up at her, trying his best to steady his breathing but failing miserably. “I won’t let him, I promise.” She says, looking really fucking amused. Will narrows his eyes. “He’d probably do it in my sleep or something, and by the time you know it’s too late.” He mutters, bringing the two into a bit of a laughing fit, though it really isn’t that funny. 

Once the laughter has died down, the two are left into a kind of awkward silence. Though the silence definitely isn’t as awkward as it would have been, maybe a month ago. Will can tell El is nervous now, and thinks, for a moment, she regrets the piercing. Though it’s obvious that isn’t the case when she opens her mouth to speak.

“Can I ask you something?” She says, not looking at Will, just looking at her fingers, which are nervously twiddling with each other on her lap. And Will kind of wants to say, for a moment, “You just did,” until he sees the look on her face, the way she looks like she might just cry. So instead, he says “Yeah, what’s up?” She looks up at him, then, only for a moment, probably to gauge his reaction. “Promise you won’t- like- hate me?” She asks, again looking up at Will as he furrows his eyebrows in concern but nods anyway. “Yeah, I couldn’t ever hate anyone, El.” She seems to ease up a bit at that, though she still looks tense.

“I-is it normal… for a girl to like other girls? Or-or is it… bad? Is there something wrong with me?” Will shakes his head, taking one of her hands in his own to help comfort her. “No, it’s not bad. There’s nothing wrong with you, El. It’s completely normal. I like… I like boys.” He says, with a sigh. It feels like a weight has been taken off his shoulders, saying it. Because this is the first time he’s told anyone, out loud. Sure, it’s been implied, like with Jonathan knowing about his little thing with Mike, and it’s been implied with Mike when Mike kissed him and he kissed back with a smile, but he’s never said it out loud, until just now.

El eases up completely then, and a smile takes over her face. “So, I’m not the only one?” Will shakes his head, his grip on El’s hand tightening a bit, not tightening enough to hurt, just enough to act as a bit of an anchor for her. “No, there are so many people out there who like the same gender as them.” El shakes her head. “But… I like boys too. I-I like everyone, I don’t really… think about gender, though. I just kind of… love?” Will nods. “That has a name. It’s called pansexual. When you don’t really think about what someone has under their clothes, or just gender in general. You just…” 

“Love.” They say it at the same time. “Yeah, I- Then- I’m pansexual?” Will nods. “That’s what it sounds like. I’m just… gay. Because I only like guys.” El nods. “Do you like someone? Like, someone that’s not Mike?” Will asks El, bringing a nod from the girl. “Yeah, that girl that sat in front of me in science last year- Jenny Craig.” Will nods. “Yeah, I know her.”

Jenny Craig, a girl with shoulder length blonde hair and hazel eyes, and the brightest smile you’ve ever seen. She was one of the more popular girls in school, or she was until she broke up with her boyfriend, the quarterback, and came out as lesbain the last day of school. Everyone was talking about it, and last Will had heard, she’s been staying at a friend’s house because her parents kicked her out.

All for who she loved.

“Will?” El asks, bringing Will back to reality. “Sh-Should I tell Joyce and Hopper? That I- Y’know, like girls too? That I’m- what was it?” Will smiles at her. “Pansexual.” She nods, with a bit of a smile. “Pansexual.” She says, as though trying the word out though she had already said it, already knew what it was and had said that’s what she was. “Should I tell them? Would they kick me out like Jenny’s parents did?” Will shakes his head. “I don’t think they would. I think it might take Hopper a bit to get used to it, but they wouldn’t kick you out.” El nods. “Should I tell them, then? Or, maybe you could tell them at the same time as I do? And then we’d kind of, I dunno, be like, emotional support for each other?” Will thinks about it for a moment, before nodding. “Sure, when do you want to?” 

El’s the one to think this time. “Tonight at dinner?” 

☆☆☆

The two were now sitting at dinner, El only picking at her leftover meatloaf and Will not even touching his. Joyce and Hopper had been shooting them weird glances ever since, and Jonathan hadn’t even seemed to notice the two were there, he was too busy playing around with the new camera he got, despite Joyce telling him he needed to put it up for dinner.

“Guys, what’s wrong? I know meatloaf isn’t your favorite but we really needed to eat the leftovers before they got bad.” Joyce speaks, after ten awkward minutes of silence. El takes a deep breath before speaking.

“I- We have something to tell you.” El says, using the hand not holding her fork to grab Will’s hand under the table, because though they both know it’s going to be okay and they’re going to be loved and supported no matter what, it’s still scary. 

That seems to draw everyone’s attention, even Jonathan’s. The whole table seems to stop and stare at the two, everyone waiting for them to speak again.

“I’m gay.” Will blurts out first, just ready to get this over with. “Okay.” Joyce and Jonathan say at the same time. Hopper just stares. “Okay?” Will asks, an eyebrow raised. “Okay.” Joyce says again, placing her fork down on her plate next to her half eaten meatloaf. “I mean, we kind of already knew.” Jonathan says, because he _did_ know. Will sighs as he watches Joyce nod. “It’s been… kind of obvious since you were really little. I mean, you did come home the day you met Mike and told me you wanted to marry him. I’ve just never asked about it, because I knew you would tell us eventually.” She explains. Will looks down at his plate, suddenly embarrassed, because his family _knew._

El is quick to save him, by coming out as well. “I’m pansexual.” She murmurs, so quiet that nobody would have heard it had the table not been so fucking quiet. “Pan- what’s that?” Hopper asks, asking the question everyone else except Will and El was thinking. “It- It’s when you just kind of… love people. Like, their gender doesn’t matter. You don’t care what they… uhm… have in their pants, you just kind of… like them.” El explains quietly. “I don’t quite understand. You like.... Girls and… Boys? What?” Hopper asks, earning a nod from El. “Basically, yeah.” Hopper thinks for a moment before sighing and walking off.

El, suddenly confused and a bit hurt, turns to face Joyce, who has a sympathetic look on her face. El turns to Will next, who is still looking down at his plate. “You said he would be okay with it! You said nothing bad would happen!” El shouts at him. Will flinches at the yelling, memories of Lonnie yelling at him years ago when Lonnie still lived with them playing through his head. He doesn’t say a word as he stands and clears his plate before running upstairs and to his room.

Once he’s in his room, he closes the door behind him, slowly sinking down it to hug his knees. He feels bad for what he’s done to El, once more. And at that moment, he decides he’s going to just distance himself from El as much as he can, just like how he’s distancing himself from Mike. Because being around those two, being close to them, clearly only brings trouble.

✩✩✩

_June 20, 1986_

Will sighs as he looks out the car window. El is currently driving behind Joyce, as they’re all on their way to Hawkins for a month or so for the summer. Neither El nor Will have spoken the entire trip other than to tell the other they’re hungry or need to use the bathroom so they can look for somewhere to stop. Other than that, it’s been silence, not even the radio playing in the tense atmosphere of the car. 

Although, Will had wanted to compliment El on the rainbow pin she put on the leather jacket she stole from some guy she’s friends with, right there on the worn in collar, the only pin on the jacket, so it, of course, immediately brought attention to it. But he hadn’t complemented her on it, because he knew it would just end in her staring at him for a moment before turning back to where she was packing her suitcase into the trunk of the car.

“There’s a mcdonalds up here, if you’re hungry.” El murmurs, not even looking at Will. He shakes his head, responding with a simple “No, I’m not.” Because they did just eat an hour ago. El sighs and then the car is plunged into a tense and awkward silence once more.

Before Will knows it they’re pulling up to the Wheeler house, the place they’ll be staying for the summer. 

Nancy is standing outside, waiting for them with a smile on her face. It kind of surprises Will that Mike isn’t there with her, because Will was sure he would be. But he isn’t. It kind of hurts Will, but he shakes the feeling off quickly. Maybe he was busy or didn’t realize they were going to be here so soon or something.

But Will knows that isn’t true. 

Mike knew what time they were supposed to get there, especially since Jonathan, Hopper, and Joyce arrived twenty minutes before they did.

He tries not to think about it, though, as he steps out of the car with a smile on his face and immediately stretches, because being in the cramped passenger seat for as long as he had been was pretty uncomfortable.

Nancy walks over to them as he’s circling the car to get their-or more so his-bags out of the trunk. “Hey, guys. Good to see you.” She says, though it sounds a bit fake. Will kind of expected that, he knew Nancy really only enjoyed their visits because she got to see Jonathan, and sometimes because she got to spend girl time with El. It’s not that she didn’t like Will, she loved him, but they just didn’t have all that much in common.

Nancy turns to Will immediately after saying that, her obviously fake smile dropping a bit, but only just a bit. Not even to even really notice if you weren’t paying attention. 

“Mike’s in the basement with Lucas and Dustin, they’re setting up DnD to play with you. That’s why he’s not here.” Will nods, his smile now more genuine than before, and grabs his suitcase out of the trunk before walking off to the house. The door is open, allowing all the bugs from outside to fly inside and the AC to flow out and hit Will in the face as soon as he’s in front of the door. Goosebumps from the sudden cold air arise on his arms and legs immediately, but the air feels nice compared to the summer heat, even if he had only been standing in said heat for about five minutes. He feels bad for El, who is all black, with jeans and a jacket. He’s sure she must be dying right now, but she was the one who chose to wear that, so he doesn’t really feel all that bad.

He walks inside right as Karen Wheeler comes down the stairs and into the hallway. She smiles at the sight of Will and waves at him before walking off and disappearing into the living room, where Will can hear a kids show playing on the TV for Holly.

Will walks inside and makes a beeline for the basement, leaving his suitcase outside the door to grab later. He could hear the group laughing downstairs about some joke that Dustin probably made, because though Will really didn’t like saying it Dustin was the funniest. But that didn’t mean Dustin was the best. Everyone in the group had a part, had something they were best at, but no one in the group was the best.

Dustin, for example, was the funniest. Lucas was the smartest. Mike was the leader. Max had a smart mouth but had good and fast comebacks. El was the most powerful (obviously), and Will was the nicest. 

When he reaches the downstairs, he sees a scene he really would never have expected. Mike and Lucas sitting at their old DnD table, way too big for it now but not caring. And Dustin standing on said table with a pink, feathery scarf, a dress, and messy lipstick on. The costume chest that the Wheelers keep in the basement, behind the stairs, has been dragged out and obviously ruffled through, so Dustin could find all that stuff.

“Uh, guys?” Will says, dragging everyone’s attention over to him. Dustin’s eyes widen and he attempts to jump off the table as soon as he sees Will, only to tip it over and go tumbling to the floor loudly. That brings about yet another wave of laughter from the boys, this time Will included.

“What the fuck?” He asks in between laughs, walking down the remaining three stairs and going over to the table to stand it back up. “Nancy told me you guys were preparing for DnD not playing dress up.” He says, a smile playing at his lips as he dusts the footprints off the table.

“That was the plan, but then Dustin found the costume chest while we were looking for the board and we got distracted.” Lucas states, the laughter in the room now dying down, except for Dustin’s, who is still lying on the floor, laughing so hard he has tears in his eyes.

The door to the basement opens then to reveal a concerned looking Karen Wheeler.

“Are you boys okay? We heard a thump and wanted to make sure.” She says, scanning the room. An amused smile playing at her lips as her eyes land on Dustin, dying of laughter on the floor, wearing a pink dress way too small for him and a pink feather scarf.

“I think that’s a yes.” She says, amusement clear in her voice as well. “Uh, well, be careful, boys.” She says before closing the door and walking off.

Dustin eventually gets off the floor and takes the dress and scarf off, only being left with the lipstick because he has no fucking idea how to take it off and neither do any of the other boys.

They get to playing DnD but halfway through trail off to talking about girls, of course.

“Y’know, kinda thinking of asking El if she wants to go hangout in that special spot we found in the woods a few weeks ago, y’know where Lucas and Max go all the time-” Mike is cut off with an angry “Hey!” From Lucas. Mike doesn’t seem to be affected, only laughing. “Wait, like, for sex?” Will asks, trying his best to hide the panic he’s feeling, because he _really_ doesn’t want his basically boyfriend to have sex with his sister, even if they’re not even really dating and Will is only a side hoe.

Mike laughs again. “Yes, for sex. What else would it be for?” Will groans and drops his head down on the table. “Could you not talk about fucking my sister in front of me? It’s fucking gross and I don’t want to hear it.” Will states, his words muffled by the table and his hair hanging down next to his face. Mike sighs and Will can practically hear the eyeroll but agrees anyway.

“And don’t fucking get her pregnant. Hopper’s already on the verge of killing her with the belly button piercing and her being pansexual and just her new personality in general.” Will states. “Wait, belly button piercing? Ohhhhh.” Mike says, his cheeks heating up a bit at the thought of it. Will raises his head to look at Mike only to drop it back down upon seeing the _clearly horny_ expression on his face.

“God, shut the fuck up. I just wanna fucking play DnD.” Will groans out, looking up once more and sending pleading eyes to the only other boy at the table who doesn’t look horny; Dustin, who honestly looks just as uncomfortable as Will feels and probably looks.

“Yeah, can we just play?” Dustin asks, looking at the other two boys, who sigh but nod anyway to make their friends happy. 

The four boys play DnD for hours, until dinner is ready and even after that, eating while playing after Karen and Joyce brought their plates down and leaving greasy fingerprints on everything from the homemade pizza Karen made for dinner. They play well into the night and long after they know they should go to bed, but not once does an adult come in and interrupt. Probably because, for the first time in about two years, all four of the boys were just being boys, all girls out of sight and out of mind.

They played until they couldn’t play anymore, their hands aching from playing with the dice and the figurines all afternoon, their legs hurting from not moving all day except to play footsies while someone else was making their move, and their backs hurting from leaning over the table. It was just like old times, from when they were ten until they were fourteen, until they stopped playing DnD.

Each of the boys had content smiles on their faces despite the ache it brought to their cheeks because they’d been laughing and smiling all afternoon to the point of the muscles in their faces hurting. But they didn’t care, they felt young and free. Just like how they felt before Will got stuck in the upside down for months and suddenly they weren’t allowed to be kids anymore because they had to fight supernatural monsters and find Will and then find El. And then the Byers moved.

The smiles didn’t leave their faces until they said goodnight and the overhead light was turned out in the basement, the only light left being a nightlight because though it had been three years since Will was stuck in that cold, dark place, he was still afraid of complete darkness. It was better now than it had been before, because at first he couldn’t sleep without the overhead light on. And then the overhead light became the bedside lamp, and then the lamp became a small nightlight in the corner of the room. Just enough light to cast the major shadows away.

☆☆☆

_June 21, 1986_

Will was the first to wake up the next morning to the smell of breakfast wafting past the cracked basement door-cracked, because it gets stuffy down there if it isn’t-and down the stairs. His back hurts from sleeping in a sleeping bag on the floor, but he could really care less.

Because Mike is currently cuddled in next to him, his arm flung across Will’s stomach and his leg intertwined with Will’s left one. As for Will’s right leg, well, Dustin currently had that leg in a sort of death grip with his own leg. Will didn’t mind, though. He frequently woke up tangled with the other boys at their old sleepovers, so this is really nothing new.

He lays there for goodness knows how long, listening to everyone else in his and the Wheeler family talk and walk about but not disturb the boys, just as they hadn’t yesterday. Until the clock above the TV in the corner of the room that they only drag out when they’re too tired to play DnD but not tired enough to sleep said it was twelve thirty. By then Karen had knocked on the door once, an hour before, to tell the boys to wake up, to no avail. Now she was coming down the stairs, her heels clinking against the wooden steps.

She shakes Mike awake first after smiling and waving at Will, followed by Dustin and finally Lucas. And once all the boys were semi awake she told them they had omelets sitting on the table ready to eat whenever they were ready. And then she was gone, her heels clicking back up the steps and out the door.

The boys grumble and groan for a few minutes, occasionally falling asleep on and off, before Will is the first to get up and leave the basement, disregarding his major bedhead and his wrinkled clothes.

The upstairs was fairly quiet, save for Holly talking about some toy she just got to Joyce, and the TV running in the living room. He walks into the kitchen and takes the seat he usually takes when he’s at the Wheelers’ house. The seat next to Mike.

There was a plate at each of the chairs at the table, save for the two end chairs. Will supposed it was for each of the boys to be able to just sit and not have to worry about getting their food from the counter or something. 

The other three boys come upstairs a few minutes later, each taking a seat as well, which of course ended up in Mike sitting next to Will. Dustin was across from Will and Lucas next to him.

The breakfast was silent, and when it was over the four boys split away from each other to do their own things. For Lucas and Dustin, that was to get home, whether it was biking (For Dustin) or driving (For Lucas). And for Will and Mike? That was going up to Nancy’s room to make out with El (For Mike) and going to the living room to hang out with the adults (For Will.)

And though it was boring, listening to the adults talk about finances and jobs and college, it was definitely better than hanging out by himself either in the basement or in Mike’s room or watching El and Mike make out in Nancy’s room while Nancy did the same with Jonathan, only those two weren’t at the house right now. They were off on a date or something, Will thinks he recalls Nancy saying at one point when Mike had first gone upstairs. Will figures she had the same thought process as Will and didn’t exactly want to watch Mike and El make out.

Before Will knew it, Jonathan was walking over to him and placing a hand on his shoulder to draw his attention to him. Will looks up at Jonathan with a confused look on his face, but doesn’t say anything. “Wanna go to the new mall they built with me and Nancy? Steve and Robin are gonna go too.” 

Will nods with a smile, immediately standing to go get his shoes from the basement and slipping them on before coming to join Jonathan and Nancy where they’re standing next to the front door and talking. Jonathan turns to him with a smile. “You ready?” Will nods. Nancy opens the door with a sigh, going out and walking over to Jonathan’s car, the two boys in tow. Jonathan unlocks the car to allow everyone to get in, Nancy taking the passenger seat and leaving Will stuck in the backseat. He doesn’t let it bother him, though, because at least he’ll get to be away from Mike and El and their mushy coupleness.

The drive to the mall is fairly silent save for the music Jonathan turns on after slipping a tape into the radio of the car, the first song being Should I Stay or Should I Go by The Clash, so Will knows almost immediately this is Jonathan’s compilation of The Clash songs, because he couldn’t afford an actual tape of their songs when he wanted it, so he kind of just stole the songs from various places over the course of a few months and put them on this tape that he’s had ever since. 

They park in a spot that’s almost at the front of the lot, Jonathan turning and smiling at Will as soon as the car is off and Nancy’s unbuckling and handing him a wad of tens. “Here, have at it.” He states with a smile before following Nancy and getting out of the car. Will stares in awe at the cash for a minute, wondering where Jonathan could have gotten that much money, before getting out of the car as well because he can sense them staring at him and he doesn’t like it very much.

He follows them into the mall where they meet Steve and Robin, who are smiling and surprisingly holding hands, but Will decides not to question it until Jonathan and Nancy are gone because he’s pretty sure Robin isn’t out to Nancy yet and he really doesn’t want to out her. Luckily, Nancy and Jonathan leave pretty quick, Nancy pulling Jonathan away from the other three teens to go to The Gap, and leaving the three alone without a word.

Will glances at Steve and Robin’s interlocked hands before looking up at them with an eyebrow raised. “Okay, what the fuck?” He asks with a bit of a laugh, shoving the cash Jonathan gave him into one of the back pockets of his shorts. 

Robin and Steve turn to each other as well and laugh a little, slipping their hands away from each other as they do. Robin’s new, slightly shorter hair bounces, and Will kind of wants to compliment it, the way it really frames her face, and the way it just looks so amazing on her, especially with the bangs. 

“People were getting suspicious, so we’re pretending to date because I don’t really want to come out to my parents.” Robin states with a shrug. Will nods. “Okay, well, which store are we going to first?” The two teens standing in front of him shrug. “Dunno. Why don’t we just walk around ‘til we find a place?” Steve asks, two which the other two nod. “Okay.” The three teens set off from there, just walking around in mostly silence save for the talking of other people around them and the song Just What I Needed by The Cars playing over the speakers through the mall, though the people around them are so loud you can scarcely hear it. Will thinks the music is fitting, though, because this really is just what he needed.

“Robin, did I mention just how good your new hair looks on you? Like, seriously, it looks really good.” Will states, though he knows he didn’t mention it, he’s just trying to be casual in the best way possible. Robin smiles at him. “Thanks, I didn’t really like it at first, but it’s growing on me, especially with all the compliments I’ve been getting on it. I’ll just add yours to the collection.” She states with a bit of a laugh. Will laughs as well, though he really has no idea what he’s supposed to be laughing at, but he does it just to be nice.

The three teens walk through the mall, going in and out of stores and buying a few things, but mostly just hanging out and talking until they find themselves in the food court, Robin with a corn dog, Steve with a burger, and Will with chicken strips, still talking, the older two about college and Will about high school and how shitty it is, to which Robin nods and Steve shakes his head.

“No, now, see, Steve, you _peaked_ in high school, so of course you actually enjoyed it. But for those of us who didn’t peak in high school, we hated it, isn’t that right, Will?” Will nods, chuckling a bit. “She’s right, Steve. El would say differently, though.” Robin slams her hands down on the table, earning a few glares from the people around them, but ignoring them. “Because she’s fucking peaking!” She exclaims before reaching over and taking a bite of her corndog. Will laughs. “It’s true. She’s got like, three guys with crushes on her, and she’s able to express herself however she wants. She’s got friends, everyone in the school loves her.” Robin’s eyes widen as she points at Will, her mouth full of corndog. 

“That’s peaking!” She exclaims, the words muffled from the corndog in her mouth. Will laughs again and Steve rolls his eyes. “Alright, I get it. I peaked and you guys didn’t. What do you want me to do about it?” He asks with a smile. “Hand over the attractiveness.” Will states, reaching his hand out and making a grab motion towards Steve, who rolls his eyes again. Robin rolls her eyes as well, pushing Will’s hand back toward himself. “It’s the hair, that’s the only thing that makes him attractive.” She states, only to soon realize her mistake when Steve slams his hands down on the table just as she had done moments ago. “Aha! So you admit, I’m attractive!” He exclaims, again earning a few glares from people around them, to which he glares back. They almost instantly turn back to their food then.

“Shut the fuck up, Steve. I said the _hair_ was attractive, not you.” Robin states with a bit of a cocky smirk until Steve speaks again, a smirk growing on his face as well. “But you admit something about me is attractive, so therefore I win.” He states victoriously. Robin rolls her eyes again and takes another bite of her corndog. Steve takes a victorious bite of his burger as well, a bit of ketchup smearing on his chin as he does. Will chokes out a laugh around the fry he just ate as he notices it, but chooses not to say anything as Steve turns to glare at him.

“What the fuck are you laughing at?” He asks, his arms crossed over his chest. Robin laughs as she notices the ketchup as well, but actually speaks up. “Now, that, that’s not attractive, Steve.” She states. Steve rolls his eyes. “What the fuck is it?” Will laughs again. “You’ve got ketchup all over your face.” He states, purposefully making it seem worse than it actually is to make Steve panic a bit.

Jonathan and Nancy join them then, sitting on the empty bench at the table across from Will. “Yeah, she’s right, Steve. That’s _real_ attractive.” Nancy states with a laugh, to which Jonathan nods in agreement. Steve, on the other hand, is too busy trying to find a napkin in all the trash and food containers on the table to really pay attention to what they’re saying.

Will, on the other hand, is staring directly at Jonathan, because there’s something odd in that gaze he’s giving to Steve, something that Will has seen in Jonathan’s eyes before, but only ever aimed at Nancy. He thinks, for a minute, maybe annoyance? But Jonathan’s never really been annoyed at anyone before, not even Will. So he continues to think, until he finally notices it, that look.

It’s love. 

He’s looking at Steve with so much pure and unfiltered love, even more than he’s ever looked at Nancy with, Will wonders if he’s maybe seeing things, until Jonathan looks up at him, and he goes instantly pale. He looks like he’s seen a ghost, like he knows exactly what Will’s thinking. And he probably does. He’s always been pretty good at reading Will, knowing exactly how Will’s feeling, exactly what he’s thinking.

Jonathan’s smile instantly fades. He clears his throat, calling the attention at the table to him. Nancy looks concerned, she’s cupping his face and asking him if he’s okay, if he needs to leave, or get something to eat, or need some water. He’s pushing her away, telling everyone he just needs to go to the bathroom, and then walking off, in the opposite direction of the bathrooms, towards the doors of the mall. 

Will stands just a few seconds later, calling everyone’s attention over to him. He awkwardly smiles at them. “I’m just gonna go make sure he’s okay.” He states, and without waiting for a response, walks off, leaving his half eaten food on the table, leaving his bags as well. 

Jonathan is sitting on one of the benches near the entrance of the mall, just staring at the parking lot and the people entering and exiting the doors. Will goes over to him, sitting next to him and tapping him on the shoulder gently. Jonathan doesn’t turn to him. 

“Jonathan, what just happened in there?” Will asks, to which Jonathan just glances at him before turning back towards the parking lot. “Nothing.” He murmurs, though Will knows it isn’t true. “Jonathan.” He states, earning a sigh from his brother. “Talk to me. You always make me talk to you, now I’m making you do the same.” Jonathan nods with another sigh. 

“I’m gay, too. And I’ve liked Steve for a long ass time now, but I’m with Nancy, and he’s obviously got a crush on Robin or maybe they’re even together, based on the fact they were holding hands when we walked up to them earlier.” Will breathes out a small laugh, one small enough to lighten the mood but not big enough to come across as though he’s making fun of Jonathan.

“They’re not together, trust me, Jonathan. But regardless of whether Steve likes you or not, you can’t lead Nancy on like this.” Will states. Jonathan nods, turning to face Will. “I know, but it’s hard. Because if I’m with Nancy, I can avoid the feelings. But if I break up with her, then I’m going to have to own up to them, I’m going to have to act like I don’t like Steve, but I’m going to have to think about him all the time. I’ll have nothing to distract me from the feelings, nothing to look at to convince myself I can be straight if I try.” Will nods. “Trust me, I know the feeling. But, it’s going to take a weight off your shoulders if you just end it with her. And maybe, if you’re brave enough, tell Steve about your feelings. I know he won’t hate you or think you’re gross.” 

Jonathan nods again, breathing out heavily. “Thanks, Will. I know I’m the big brother, so I’m supposed to be the one giving the advice.” Will laughs a little, a bit of a bigger laugh than the last one. “It’s okay. Sometimes you have to take advice rather than give it, even if it’s from your little brother.” Jonathan laughs a little as well, but the moment is broken by Nancy, Steve, and Robin all running out to join the two.

“Jesus, Jonathan, I was so worried. What are you two doing out here?” Nancy rushes out, looking between the two, who glance at each other before looking back at Nancy. Will slowly stands, moving to join Steve and Robin. “I think you two need to talk.” He states, walking over to his brother and placing a hand on his shoulder, leaning down so his mouth is right where Jonathan’s ear is, and whispering to him, “Good luck.” Before walking herding Steve and Robin back inside the mall and to the food court, where their now cold food still resides with their bags and their almost empty drink cups.

Where Nancy and Jonathan were sitting there is now a container of lo mein from the Chinese place, and a corndog. The corndog, Will assumes, for Nancy, and the noodles for Jonathan.

The three talk tensely, and it’s clear that Steve and Robin want to ask about what’s going on, but they choose not to, for they know it’s not a good time and it’s something they should ask Jonathan about, not Will. Nancy comes speedwalking over about ten minutes later, grabbing her purse and not even glancing at the three before leaving again as they stare at her. Jonathan is nowhere to be seen, leaving the two’s food and shopping bags at the table.

Steve and Robin exchange a glance before turning to Will, who’s got the straw of his coke in his mouth, despite the fact the cup was drained of the sugary liquid long ago. 

“I’m not saying anything.” He states before they can ask about it. They just shrug it off, standing and throwing their garbage away with Will in tow before grabbing theirs and Nancy and Jonathan’s bags from the table. “We’ll give you a ride home, Will.” Robin states, to which Will nods as he follows the two out of the mall and to Steve’s car. Robin takes the passenger seat, Steve obviously the drivers, and Will the backseat. But he doesn’t mind, because this car ride isn’t as silent or tense as the two Will has been in over the past few days, so he enjoys it.

He gets out of the car when Steve pulls into the Wheelers’ driveway, clutching his own bags as well as Nancy and Jonathan’s. He waves as Steve drives away, turning to the house once Steve’s car is no longer within sight and taking a deep breath to prepare for the shitshow ahead.

It’s as terrible as Will expects, he realizes as he walks through the unlocked front door. Mike is yelling at Jonathan in the living room for hurting Nancy, whose cries can be heard coming from the kitchen, where Karen Wheeler’s voice is also wafting out, soothing her daughter with kind words. Holly is just standing in the hallway, looking between the kitchen and living room and then at Will, without any idea of what to do.

Will sighs, shutting the front door quietly and discarding the shopping bags next to it before going over to Holly to pick her up. “Hey, Holls. This is a lot, isn’t it?” Holly nods, her blonde pigtails bouncing as she does. Will sighs. “We can hang out upstairs though, okay?” She nods again, a bit of a smile on her face as she reaches up and wraps a stray strand of will’s hair around her finger. Will smiles, wishing he could be as small as she is again, because life wasn’t nearly as complicated then as it is now, as he begins to walk towards the stairs.

Jonathan comes out of the living room at that moment, almost bumping into Will as he does. He turns towards his younger brother, shiny tear stains clear on his red cheeks. His eyes are swollen and red from crying too, his hair all messed up from tugging on it like he does when he cries, just like how Will does sometimes, too.

“This is your fault, Will. This never would have happened if it wasn’t for you.” He exclaims, anger clear on his face, in his voice. Will sighs, getting flashbacks from the night El came out to Hopper, and that shitshow. He wonders if Jonathan will stop talking to him as well, and oddly enough that thought doesn’t really affect him as much as it may have two months ago, or a year ago. 

It kind of scares Will, the way Jonathan is acting. Will’s only ever seen him cry once, after the first time Lonnie hit Joyce in front of the two boys, and Will has never seen Jonathan angry. Or at least, not as angry as he is right now. Not enough to where he’s yelling at Will, blaming him for what happened.

Will just sighs and nods before carrying Holly upstairs and to her room, where the two hang out and play dolls until Karen comes upstairs and tells Holly it’s time to take a bath and go to bed, and then Will is alone out in the hallway. He doesn’t know where to stay for the night. It’ll be too tense with Mike, too tense in the living room with Jonathan, too tense for Nancy’s room with her and El, and the guest room is taken by Hopper and Joyce.

He just sighs, and decides he’ll sleep in the basement again, hoping as he walks down the stairs that there’s still the sleeping bags from the night before down there.

Mike joins him not long after he makes his way down to the basement and into his pajamas, which consist of an old Star Wars shirt and black sweatpants. Mike is in his pajamas as well, in a plain blue t-shirt and a pair of black basketball shorts.

“You’re sleeping down here?” Will nods. “Why?” Will shrugs. Mike sighs, turning to look at Will. “Come on now, Will. Don’t give me that shit. Why are you avoiding me?” Will sighs, shakes his head, clutches the teddy bear he sleeps with tighter to his chest. Mike reaches over, gently taking Will’s face in his bony fingers, and turns Will’s head so he’s looking at the lanky boy. Will sighs, desperately trying not to nuzzle deeper into the warm touch of Mike’s hands that he’s missed so much, but desperately failing at it.

“Will, talk to me. Please.” Will sighs once more, and despite not wanting to, opens his mouth to speak. Because the way Mike said that ‘please,’ the way he sounded _so fucking desperate_ , well, it sends a pain directly to Will’s heart that he hates.

“This isn’t right. What we’re doing, Mike. It’s bad.” Mike nods, sighs, looks away from Will and down to his lap. “I know. But I’m working on it, okay? I need to find a good time to break up with El. I was going to today, but it didn’t work, because of Jonathan and Nancy, so another day, okay? I promise.” And despite Will knowing that’s a lie, he nods, opens his eyes, and looks up to face Mike, who lets go of Will’s face. Will craves the touch immediately, but it’s quickly replaced by the feeling of Mike’s lips on his own, something Will has missed and craved even more, so he doesn’t complain.

Mike pulls away far too quick for Will’s liking, but with a devious looking smile. “Can I, just-” He cuts himself off, reaching for the hem of Will’s shirt. Will nods, though he knows he’s going to regret it.

✩✩✩

_June 22, 1986_

He wakes up the next morning exactly where he fell asleep; in Mike’s bed, wrapped in Mike’s arms, in his legs, just surrounded by Mike, Mike, Mike. He smiles, turns to face the ravenette, and presses a gentle kiss to his lips. Mike wakes up as he does it, smiles into the kiss, deepens it for a moment, until there’s a knock at the door.

“Boys, c’mon, get up. It’s late, breakfast is on the table.” Mike groans, unraveling one of his arms from Will’s chest, and rubs the sleep out of his eyes for a moment before speaking. “We’re up, mom! We’ll be down in a minute!” He exclaims, before turning back to Will with a smile on his face. “How do you feel?” Will shrugs with a smile on his face as well. “I feel okay. Normal.” Mike smiles a bit wider, leaning over to press a gentle kiss to Will’s temple. And Will lets himself get lost in the moment for just a second, though he knows that in five minutes they’re going to have to go downstairs and pretend they’re just best friends, nothing more.

“That’s good, baby.” Mike murmurs, and despite Will knowing the pet name is an accident, he still lets a smile take over his face, embraces the feel of the butterflies in his stomach. Because this is the last time he’s going to get to experience this, so he’s going to have to enjoy it.

They get up after a few minutes of Mike just running his hand through Will’s hair and smiling at him, when Karen comes back upstairs to wake them up again. They groan in frustration but get up nonetheless, going downstairs to eat the waffles Karen made. The tension is just as bad as it was yesterday evening, with Nancy glaring at Jonathan and El and Jonathan glaring at Will. 

Will tries his best to ignore it, eating quickly and telling Joyce he’s going out once he’s done eating, though he really has no idea where he’s going to go. He just wants to get out of that tenseness, wants to be able to breathe for a bit.

He gets his car keys and he just drives, doesn’t even know where he’s going until he’s pulled into the driveway of Max Mayfield’s house. And he understands why he unconsciously brought himself here; he needed to talk to someone who wasn’t a part of any of this, who would actually give advice, who would judge, someone he was close to. And that person was Max Mayfield.

He gets out of the car and knocks on the door, which opens almost immediately to reveal a smiling Max. “Hey, I saw your car.” She brings him in for a hug, a tight one. But not one too tight, not one tight enough to suffocate him, just tight enough to ground him from all the thoughts in his mind, tight enough to tell him that she’s here for him. 

“I missed you, so much.” She murmurs into his shoulder before pulling away, her fiery red locks swinging a bit as she does. Her hair is down today, and it glitters in the sunlight. “Come inside.” She states, moving out of the way to allow Will to make his way into the house. She takes him to her bedroom, closing the door behind the two before making her way over to him.

“So, what’s up? Because I know something’s up, or you’d invite me to go somewhere, not really come over here.” She states, crawling over to her bedside table and pulling a few different colored bottles of nail polish off. “Can I paint your nails?” Will nods, revealing his hands. “What color?” Will eyes the four colors she has; blue, green, red, and black. “Uh, blue.” Max smiles, placing the other bottles down and opening the blue one. “Good choice. Now talk to me.” Will nods, taking a deep breath as the smell of the nail polish envelopes his nostrils.

“There’s a lot.” He states, to which she breathes out a laugh. “I’ve got time. It’s summer, so I’ve got all the free time in the world.” Will nods, taking another deep breath before explaining everything. Explaining the situation with Mike, what’s happening with Jonathan, El, everything. And Max, she listens. Nodding at all the right times, the occasional ‘Mhm’ or ‘oh, shit’ to show she’s listening, until Will takes another deep breath, and goes silent.

“Wow, that’s… a lot.” Will nods, watching as Max blows on the wet nail polish on his thumb. “I know.” She sighs, leaning away from his hand to look at the other nail polishes sitting next to her before picking up the green one and twisting it open, beginning to paint her own nails. “Well, let’s see, what do you want me to give you advice on first? Or maybe you just needed to vent, you didn’t need advice?” Will shakes his head in response to her question. “No, I definitely need advice. I don’t need help with Mike, I’ve got that covered. But what about Jonathan and El?” Max sighs again, shrugging a bit but speaking nonetheless. “I’m not really sure. Maybe just apologize, talk to them. If they’re still mad, that’s on them, and you can peacefully sleep at night knowing you’ve done all you can really do. But other than that, there isn’t much to do. And Jonathan, you might wanna give him some time. But El, I think it’s okay to go ahead and approach her. And I know you said you have Mike covered, and Jonathan already told you this, but _please_ break it off soon, before you’re too attached.”

Will fights the urge to fiddle with his fingers in his lap, knowing the nail polish is probably still drying. Max seems to sense something is going on with Will, because she looks up from her own nails to analyze him. “Will, what’re you hiding from me? Come on, spit it out.” Will takes a shaky breath, before speaking. He doesn’t really fight the urge to fiddle with his fingers anymore, figuring that they’re dry enough, he’ll just try to be careful. 

“Mike and I _may_ have… uh, had sex? Last night?” Will murmurs, not looking at Max as he does. Max seems to choke on her own spit, based on the noise she makes in response to Will’s confession. “You _what_ ?!” She exclaims, almost spilling the nail polish all over her already colorful carpet. Will shrugs, looking down at his nails to make sure he didn’t mess them up and sighing in relief upon finding out he didn’t, that they still look fine. “Yeah…” He murmurs, to which Max takes a deep breath. “Okay, so you’re already _very_ attached.” Will nods. “Right, well, you really need to break if off, someone is gonna find out, and they’re not gonna react as well as Jonathan did.” Will nods with a sigh. “Okay, thanks, Max.” She nods, smiling at the brunette boy. “‘Course, what’re friends for?” Will laughs a little, though that’s not really that funny. “Yeah, what’re friends for?”

✰✰✰

Will goes back to the Wheeler house later that day feeling like multiple weights have been taken off his shoulders. But no matter how many weights seem to lift, more seem to weigh down. He can never completely feel weightless, no matter how much he tries. 

Regardless, he still feels a bit of relief at the small weight loss from his shoulders, though it’s not much. 

Will enters the home, to a much calmer scene than what there was last night. Karen Wheeler is in the kitchen making something that smells really fucking good, the TV in the living room is running, and Mike is standing in the hallway to greet Will with a smile. Will smiles back, knowing that it’s filled with all the love he has for Mike, though he tries to make it seem like it doesn’t. He thinks that maybe he should just stop acting and break it off right here, right now. But he doesn’t have the heart for that. He _needs_ to distance himself, so it will hurt them both less. Though he isn’t sure if it would hurt Mike at all, isn’t even sure if this thing means anything to Mike. Hell, for all he knows, this is just a little something on the side for when Mike can’t get action from El.

Mike goes to reach for one of Will’s hands, to which Will quickly moves his hand away to prevent Mike from doing so. Mike almost looks hurt at the action, but quickly masks it. He does look confused, though, but doesn’t question it. 

“Where’s El?” Will asks, sighing upon seeing the panicked look that crosses Mike's face, like he thinks Will is going to tell her about what they’ve been doing. “I just need to talk to her. Where is she?” Mike sighs, the panic not quite going away but being covered with the confusion from before. “Living room, with everyone else.” Will nods, walking past Mike to make a beeline for the living room. 

El is sitting on the couch, and looks up almost as soon as Will enters the room. He walks over to her, leaning down to whisper in her ear that he needs to talk to her before pulling away and exiting the room. She doesn’t speak, but he can hear her footsteps following after him.

Will makes his way upstairs and to Nancy’s room, because that’s the only place in the house where they’d get privacy that doesn’t make him think of Mike, where the memories of what happened last night doesn’t hit him directly in the face as soon as he enters.

“What’s up?” El asks, actually semi sounding like she wants to talk to Will for the first time in a long ass time. Will sighs, sitting down on the floor, to which El responds by sitting on the floor across from him, criss cross. “I’m sorry.” He states, looking directly at her. She shakes her head, a small, hurt smile developing on her face. “No, don’t apologize. It’s not your fault. You thought it would be fine, and it honestly kind of is. Hopper is definitely warming up to the idea, he actually wanted to talk to me about it the other day. I just kind of overreacted, and I was just being dumb, okay? So, don’t apologize.”

Will sighs, relieved, and feels yet another weight lift from his shoulders. “What happened with Jonathan yesterday? Why-why did he say that was your fault?” Will looks at her, a bit confused. He hadn’t even realized she was downstairs to hear all that, hadn’t seen her in any of the downstairs room. “I was at the top of the stairs.” She explains. Will nods. “I… I was the one that told him to break up with her. Because he doesn’t really like her anymore, he likes someone else, I thought it would be fine, that it was what he should do. But I guess not.” El smiles at Will, leaning forward to take his hand, a way of comforting her basically brother. 

“It is. You did the right thing, telling him to do that. He was probably just overreacting, like I did that day. It’s gonna be okay, though. You two will make up, you’re close. You always make up.” Will nods with a sigh, smiling a little at El. He flips his hand over to more properly take her hand in his own. “Thanks, El.” He says, before the two are enveloped in a comfortable silence for a few minutes. 

“I’m gonna go… hang out with the others, y’know, in the living room. Feel free to stay in here, if you want.” El states with a smile before standing and exiting the room. Will continues to sit on the floor for a moment, thinking about how he’s going to break things off with Mike, and how he’s going to apologize to Jonathan, before standing and exiting the room as well. Once he’s out in the hallway, however, he has no idea where to go. He just sighs and decides to join everyone in the living room as well.

✰✰✰

_July 4, 1986_

Before Will knows it, it’s the day before the Byers were going to leave Hawkins and go back home. Will isn’t quite ready to leave, but he’s also been ready to leave since before he was even here. He’s just so tired of this constant confusion and stress from keeping all these relationships up, and keeping one of them, the one with Mike, secret.

It’s also stressful trying to stay away from Mike and not accepting any intimacy or fluff from him, especially the look that crosses Mike’s face every time Will turns him down. That’s the worst part, Will thinks. Is that Mike isn’t all that good at hiding the hurt like Will is. Or maybe he is good at hiding the hurt, or he’s not even hurt, and he’s just acting or choosing to make it super dramatic to make Will feel bad and come running back to him. But it’s not working, because luckily Will’s getting better at pushing the feelings away, like he did before Mike kissed him the first time.

Mike, on the other hand, has gotten noticeably sadder, moping around the Wheeler house and not even showing affection to El. Will just sighs when he sees the sadness, looking away and choosing something around him is suddenly much more interesting than Mike. Joyce has definitely noticed the sudden distance between her son and his best friend, and El has definitely noticed how much Mike is suddenly distancing himself from her, but it doesn’t seem to affect her as much as Will would have ever thought.

Mike keeps trying to corner Will, whether it’s when he’s coming out of the bathroom or walking into Mike’s room or even out the front door, Mike is trying to take any moment he can to corner Will and pry an answer out of him, try to understand what’s suddenly going on. He mentions, several times, the night they had sex, asks Will if he’s uncomfortable now, or thinks it’s going to be awkward, to which Will laughs a little and shakes his head. But Will never shows any emotion in these moments other than that small laugh. Mike cherishes the laugh nonetheless, but always sighs when he realizes Will isn’t going to talk before moving away to let Will continue to live.

Will sighs as he walks down the stairs, not in his pajamas, unlike usual, because they needed to be washed so they could be packed to make it easier for the Byers’ to leave. Mike was clearly even sadder than he had been recently, but nobody comments on it.

Everyone was just hanging out in the house until later, when it’s dark, for the fireworks show that’s going to be put on at the mall. Though Mike and El have made it obvious they don’t want to go, and though Will is sure everyone else has suspicions, he’s the only one who knows for sure what they’re going to do.

They’re going to have sex.

Will is unsure if it’s going to be in the house as he and Mike had done, or if Mike is going to take her to that special place that the guys said Lucas takes Max to sometimes. Either way, the thought makes Will feel like he’s going to vomit all over the freshly vacuumed carpet in the living room or the pristine tile of the kitchen, so he’s tried his best to keep himself busy so he doesn’t have to think about it much.

Mike hasn’t made it easy, though. In between his times of cornering Will in various places, he’s been extra affectionate with El. Holding hands with her all the time, exchanging kisses in front of everyone that quickly turn pretty heated until Hopper breaks it up. He’s always talking about her, too, when he’s not around her. Whether it’s with the Party or just in the middle of the night when Will is trying to sleep, he’s bringing her up, talking about the woods and what he just can’t wait to do.

And Will hates it. With a fucking passion.

But he can’t do anything. Mike has made it clear that he’s supposedly trying to break up with her, find a right time, but they both know that’s a lie. They both know Mike is just making it up, trying to buy more time with both of the Byers siblings until he’s forced to choose between them. 

Mike knows he’s just delaying the inevitable, knows that in the end he’s going to have to choose and it’s going to be terrible. Because he knows he loves Will more than El, always has, only ever loved El when she was undeveloped, had short hair, because she looked like a boy. But he’s not ready to break up with El, though he doesn’t like her and knows he’ll have to if he wants to be happy. He just can’t stand to break her heart. He still loves her, just not romantically. Only as a friend.

Will wonders why Mike is doing this, suddenly shoving his relationship with El into his face.

Mike knows, though, he’s trying to make Will jealous, thinks that’ll make Will come back to him, but he kind of knows, deep down, it won’t work.

✰✰✰

Later that night, once it’s dark out, the Wheelers and the Byers make their way to the mall, where there’s going to be fireworks.

Jonathan hadn’t wanted to go, which isn’t much of a surprise, after the shitshow that went down at the mall not too long ago with Nancy. After a lot of convincing, though, he finally caved and agreed, as long as the same amount of space that they’ve had with each other continues to stay. 

Robin and Steve join them not too long after they arrive at the mall, followed by Lucas, Dustin, and Max. Lucas shoots Mike a wink as he walks over to him first, slipping something into his hand as discreetly as possible in front of all the adults, but Will sees. Because his gaze, even now, when he’s ghosting Mike, always rests on the lanky boy. Will questions what it is, for a moment, before the rational part of his brain quickly comes in and answers it.

Lucas slipped Mike a condom. Of course he would, El can’t get pregnant, Hopper would murder her. Besides, she’s a teenager. She’s too young to get pregnant. Will sighs, though. Mike hadn’t been nice enough to think about finding one for when they did things, though with Will it isn’t needed like it is with El. Sure, it’d be nice for Will, be more comfortable, but neither of them had a chance of STD’s, they were both virgins, and Will couldn’t get pregnant.

It would’ve just been a nice thought. 

Steve walks over to Will, sitting next to him, and breaking him out of his thoughts. “What’s up?” Will sighs, turning to face the older boy with a tired smile and a shrug. “Not much.” Steve shakes his head, returning Will’s smile with a small smile as well. “There’s something going on up here. I can tell.” Steve says, tapping the side of Will’s head with his pointer finger. “Wanna talk about it?” Will shakes his head. “I can’t. Not in front of everyone here. Only two other people know, and that’s really two more people than I had wanted to know.” Steve nods. “Okay.” 

The two sit in silence for a moment. “Have you talked to Jonathan? He said he was going over to your house the other day.” Steve nods, looking down at his hand. There, right on the back, directly in the middle of his hand, sits a small sharpie heart. “Yeah. He’s not mad at you. He told me he wanted to talk to you, he just didn’t know how to approach you. I think you should go talk to him.” Steve states, leaning back and laying down on the blanket Will had brought and sat on the ground near everyone else.

“I’ll be back. Have fun by yourself.” Will states, earning a small laugh from Steve. Will stands and walks off, in the direction of Jonathan. 

“Can we talk?” Jonathan nods, standing from the blanket he had brought and leading Will inside the mall, which doesn’t have many people inside other than employees and people getting food or using the bathroom, because everyone else is outside waiting for the fireworks to start. Will and Jonathan go to the closest bathroom to the door, which is basically empty except the one person in a stall. They don’t care, don’t know who that person is, and that person will basically leave as soon as they exit the stall, the two are sure. They stand in front of the sinks, in silence for a second before Jonathan speaks. 

“I’m not mad. There was just a lot happening that day and-” Will cuts him off. “It’s okay. I’m fine. Don’t apologize or anything.” Jonathan nods with a sigh. “I talked to Steve, told him about, y’know.” Will nods. “He said we should wait till I’m out of college, doesn’t really wanna do long distance. But he doesn’t hate me, so that’s good.” Will nods again, smiling at Jonathan. “Yeah, that’s great. So he likes you?” Jonathan nods, a small smile developing on his face as well. “Yeah, he likes me.” 

Will’s smile grows a bit more, happy for his brother. The sound of the first firework goes off outside just a second later, causing the two to exchange a glance before running to join everyone to watch the fireworks.

Will feels another weight lift off his shoulders, feels his happiness levels growing just a bit. Because everything is okay with Jonathan now, and Jonathan is happy, has found someone who likes him just as much as he likes them, someone he’ll be happy with. 

✰✰✰

_August 20, 1986_

It’s the first day of school, again. Luckily it’s Will’s junior year, which means just two more shitty years and then he’ll be done, unless he chooses to go to college. But he doesn’t know if he wants to go to college. He’d love to make a job out of his art, out of drawing, but he just doesn’t think that’s very realistic. His mother, of course, isn’t very helpful, always telling him that if he believes he can do it then he can and that if he ever needs help she’ll do as much as she can for him. But that’s not what he needs to hear. He needs actual advice.

Sure, he’s tried to ask Jonathan, but Jonathan isn’t very good at advice in the job sense either. He’s becoming a photographer, or at least trying to, and going to school for a degree in law so he could become a lawyer, have a job to fall back on if the photography doesn’t work out. But Will doesn’t have that. He can’t think of anything else he could possibly want to do. He’s thought about teaching, like becoming an art teacher, but he isn’t sure how good of a teacher he could be. 

He’s tried to talk about it with El, as well, but she seems to have her future planned out. She wants to be a nurse. And it’s not like Will can ask Mike, Dustin, Lucas, or Max about it. He knows most of them know what they want to do with their life. Dustin wants to become an engineer, Lucas an astronaut, Max a pediatrician, and Mike has no idea either.

He sighs and runs a hand through his freshly cut hair. It’s no longer a bowl cut, luckily. He was starting to get sick of that haircut, and he was sure that definitely didn’t help with the kids bullying him because they thought he was gay.

El stands next to him with a nervous smile on her face. The two are staring at the school they went to last year, as other students rush into the school around them. Many of the students don’t look too happy to be there, but they’re also not really fighting going into that school, either. They’re not smiling, but they’re not complaining about walking through the front doors.

Will turns to El. “Let’s go.” He states, earning a nod from the brunette girl beside him, and then the two are making their way into the large building in front of them. 

The hallways are loud and bustling with students, most of them grouped together, leaning against walls or lockers or just standing in the middle of the hallway, getting in the flow of things while they talk about their summers.

“Tommy and I-”

“Yeah, well, Rebecca’s a bitch, there, I said it!”

“You know Emily kissed-”

“I went to my dad’s beach house!”

Will can’t help but look around at everyone and their happy, suntanned faces, the girls with tan lines leading out of the tops of their shirts and across their shoulders, some guy leaning against a wall with a tarnished anti bullying poster taped to the wall holding his shoe in one hand and showing off his flip flop tan line to a bunch of other teens grouped around him. 

Will feels sort of envious towards those kids. Sure, he had a fun summer filled with swimming at the pool and hanging out with friends, but the mood was always dampened for him with the dread of knowing there’s impending doom on his and Mike’s secret relationship. 

Will makes his way to his locker, the same one he had last year because you keep the same locker through every year at his school, and opens it. He does the same thing he always does, tosses his backpack in and gets what he needs for his first class before going to that class, getting there earlier than most other kids and just sitting at his desk until the bell rings. Sometimes he’ll doodle in the margins of his notebooks, but today he wasn’t in the mood.

The day drags on slowly with teachers introducing themselves and then starting lessons, some even making the class do dumb excersises to get to know each other. 

And then lunchtime comes around. Will grabs his lunch and sits alone, as usual, because El has her friends to sit with and he still has no one. He expects the lunch to be normal, just him sitting there and eating and then doodling in his sketchbook until the bell rings.

Until someone walks up and sits across from him. Will knows who it is, the boy that’s sitting in front of him. Corey Hall. He’s popular, openly bisexual, and also the biggest fuckboy Will’s ever heard of. One day he’ll have someone on his arm and the next he’ll be single and going after someone else. No one has ever kept Corey for longer than two or three days. He asks them out, sleeps with them, and then forgets about them and fucks off to the next person.

“Hey, Will, right?” Will just stares at him. He knows what Corey wants, and he doesn’t plan to give it to him. And it’s for once not because of Mike that he’s not showing interest in someone. He and Mike aren’t exclusive, he knows that, so he’s okay with being with people now, but he’s not going to let Corey be his first real, exclusive relationship. Not when that boy only wants to get in his pants.

“What do you want?” Will asks, not showing any kindness to the teen in front of him. The sooner he can get Corey to walk off the better.

Corey laughs before responding. “Fiesty, aren’t ya? Wasn’t expecting that.” He reaches forward and snatches a fry from Will’s lunch tray. And even though the fries are soggy and disgusting and Will hates them, the simple action makes Will so angry he wants to scream. Instead he just scowls and hopes that’s enough to get Corey to walk away.

It’s not.

“So, how about… me, you, tonight, the movie theater? Any movie you want, unlimited snacks, my treat.” Will scowls deeper at the brunette. “No.” He states, causing Corey to look up at him in surprise. No one has ever rejected Corey. “Oh, come on. Don’t be like that. Give a man a chance! I’m not that bad!” Will sighs and lets his scowl drop because clearly that isn’t working. “Fuck off, Corey. I’m not interested.” He sighs out, picking up his carton of milk and taking a sip of it even though he’s sure it’s expired. “Listen, everyone knows you're gay, okay? So just let me take you out. One date. And I’ll make sure no one bullies you anymore.”

Now Will is tempted. He hates the names he’s called, they’ve always hurt his feelings even though he doesn’t even know the people that call him the names. So if Corey can make sure he’s not called anymore homophobic names, maybe a movie date wouldn’t be so bad.

“Fine. One date. And you have to pick me up.” Corey smiles and steals another soggy fry. “Deal, shortstack. See you then!” Corey winks and then stands and walks off. Will sighs and looks down at his undercooked chicken nuggets. 

✰✰✰

“Please tell me the rumors aren’t true.” Will looks away from his closet as El enters and flops down on his bed. “What?” He asks, turning and leaning against the wall next to the closet. “People are saying you’ve got a date with Corey Hall, ‘the biggest fuckboy in the history of fuckboys’ tonight.” Will laughs and turns back to his closet to continue trying to find something nice to wear on this date tonight. “It’s just one date! I only said yes because he promised to get people to stop bullying me, and I’m tired of being called names, so I agreed to the date.” Will explains, pulling out a purple shirt. “What about this? And a pair of jeans? I don’t know how to dress for a date.”

El sighs, glances at the shirt, and then back at Will. “That’ll be fine. And be careful with Corey, okay? Don’t leave him alone with a drink or anything.” Will sighs and nods, taking the shirt off the hanger and throwing it on his bed. “Yes, El. I’ll be careful. Stop parenting me and get out so I can change.” El rolls her eyes but leaves the room as Will had told her to.

Will paces in the living room for about twenty minutes until someone knocks on the door, and then he answers it with a smile. “Hey, Will. Ready to go?” Corey asks, greeting Will with a smile as well. Will nods and follows him out the door and to his car. Corey even holds the door open for Will, who is beginning to regret judging him so harshly. He thinks that maybe the boy has changed over the summer or something.

A song is playing on the radio as Will buckles up, but the volume is so low he can’t recognize it. It doesn’t sound familiar to him, though, whatever it is. 

Corey starts up a conversation as he pulls out of Will’s driveway, asking small things like “What do you like to do in your free time?” And “What’s your favorite color?” They’re simple questions, just small talk, ice breakers, but Will still loves the small conversation, the way Corey shows interest in the things Will does, and the small things about him. And sure, Mike had done that when they were kids, but as of recently Mike knows virtually nothing about Will. Well, he knows a lot of the big stuff, but the smaller things have changed since kindergarten, so Mike still thinks Will’s favorite color is purple when it’s yellow now. He still thinks Will’s favorite food is pancakes when it’s spaghetti. 

Will shakes away the thoughts of Mike. He’s on a date with another boy, and he needs to enjoy it and stop thinking about Mike.

Will, of course, asks Corey questions too. He learns Corey’s favorite color (Forest green), his favorite movie (The Breakfast Club), his favorite food (Cheeseburgers, specifically from the diner in town), and his dog’s name (the stereotypical name for crusty white dogs, Bella).

The drive goes by quickly, and when they get to the movie theater Corey even opens the door for Will to get out of the car. Corey pays for the movie tickets and, as promised, every snack Will get. Will tries to only get a box of candy, but Corey kept pressing him until he ended up with a slushie, popcorn, and two boxes of candy.

They choose a seat right in the middle of the theater and snack and talk even more until the lights goes dark and the movie starts. Halfway through, Corey reaches over and laces his fingers with Will’s. And Will likes it because they don’t have to hide it. Their hands sit right there, on the armrest, and Corey _smiles_ at him. He doesn’t even attempt to hide it. 

When the movie ends Corey throws their garbage away while Will goes to the bathroom, and then he drives Will home. He walks Will up to his door, and plants a kiss right on Will’s lips, like it’s a cliche romance movie. Will kind of feels like it is, just from the amazing way Corey’s treating him. 

Will says goodbye to Corey and then walks inside. He peeks out the front window, watching the boy until he’s driven off. 

He turns away from the window, smiling so widely it makes his cheeks hurt. Because he’s just gone on a date with a hot guy, one who’s _nice_ , and who treats him amazingly. And he doesn’t have to hide it. He’s allowed to kiss him and hold his hand whenever. He’s allowed to like this boy freely, in front of anyone.

✰✰✰

Will gets bombarded by all sorts of questions once the whole family’s sitting in the living room for what Joyce has deemed ‘family game night,’ because she says that the family doesn’t spend enough time together. So she went out one day and bought a bunch of board games and then deemed every Wednesday to be family game night.

“How was the date?”

“Was he nice?”

“Was the movie good?”  
  


“Did he drug you?”

Will glares at El as she asks that last question, to which she shrugs. “I just wanna cover all the bases.” She states. Will rolls his eyes. “The date was good, he was _extremely_ nice, the movie was okay, and no, he didn’t drug me. He didn’t harm me in any way.” He states, glaring at El again. She rolls her eyes playfully.

“Well, I’m glad you enjoyed your date. If it’s going to become serious, though, I’d like to meet Corey. I’ve heard some interesting things about him, from various sources.” Will sighs and rolls his eyes, taking the game his mother hands him to unpack and set up on the coffee table. “Yeah, yeah. Everyone says he’s this huge fuckboy. I know.” Joyce sighs and sits next to Will on the couch. “I’m not judging him until I meet him, Will. Rumors always make things seem a lot worse than they actually are. I don’t believe them.” She states.

“Now, let’s play.”

✰✰✰

_August 21, 1986_

Corey walks over to Will and throws his arm around Will’s shoulder as Will walks towards his usual table. He leads him over to the popular kids’ table, and sits him down there before sitting next to him. “No more sitting alone, babe.” He states. Will sort of just stares at him. 

“Here are my friends, introduce yourselves.” Corey states, looking at the four kids in front of him. The first to speak is someone that Will’s heard of, Jenny Craig. She rose in popularity again suddenly once this school year had started, for some reason. “Hey, Will. I’m Jenny.” She says, voice soft and awkward. 

“Yeah, I know.” He murmurs, not looking at her and instead choosing to look at his tray of shitty school food. Corey clears his throat awkwardly. “Right, well, that’s Jenny, right there’s Oliver, and that’s Emily.” Corey first points at a boy, blonde curls and green eyes, and then at a darker skinned girl with black hair and brown eyes, dark freckles dusting her face. She smiles, showing off shiny braces on her teeth. The boy, Oliver, doesn’t smile, or otherwise acknowledge Will’s existence.

“And that’s everyone. Everyone, my boyfriend, Will.” Oliver scoffs, poking his fork into his crusty school mashed potatoes. “Yeah, boyfriend, sure. If you could count a week as an actual relationship.” He mutters. Corey looks at him, a sort of warning look that causes him to roll his eyes but actually shut up. “Sorry about Ollie. He’s a dick.” 

“He’s fine. I’ve had worse friends than him.” Will states with a small smile, thinking about Mike and his total assholeness. The dragging Will on, and dating him secretly while he’s dating Will’s step-sister too. Will pushes the thoughts out. No thinking about Mike. Not anymore, at least not in a way that would signify they are anything more than friends. Because that’s all they are, friends. It’s all they’re allowed to be.

“You deserve the best friends.” Corey says, taking Will out of his head and putting him back where his body is, in the cafeteria. Will smiles at Corey. “Thanks.” He murmurs, but his heart aches sadly. He can’t help but feel like, even though Corey’s the fuckboy here, he’s dragging Corey on. Something about the way Corey speaks to him, smiles at him, it seems so _genuine_. Or maybe he’s just a good actor. Will doesn’t know, but he does know he feels bad, and wishes he had never gone on that date with Corey. He’s just using him to move on from Mike. And it makes him feel shitty to think about that fact.

“You okay, Will?” He nods, finally getting out of his thoughts completely, shutting the door on the thoughts of Mike. “Yeah, I’m okay. Just a bit out of it today.” He says, but it doesn’t sound genuine, it sounds like a lie. A complete lie. Or maybe it just sounds like that to Will. His voice sounds foreign today, he feels like he’s not him. Feels like he’s not in his body. Not completely, at least. He feels like he’s hovering a few feet away, watching his body, but he’s not in it.

“Will, c’mon now, you can talk to me.” Corey says, not buying Will’s lie. So it had sounded as fake as he thought. 

“Sorry, I just, I really am out of it. A lot of shit’s going on right now.” Will says after clearing his throat. He looks around the lunch table, and everyone’s staring at the two. “Can we not talk about it here?” Corey eyes the others around them and nods. “‘Course.” 

✰✰✰

“Alright, Will, talk to me.” Corey says as the two boys walk out of the school at the end of the day. Will shakes his head, pulling his car keys from his pocket. El’s already at the car, leaning against it and talking to one of her friends. “Will, c’mon. I’m your boyfriend.” Will shakes his head again. “I _really_ don’t want to.” Will says, which is a lie. He would love to talk about it, but not to his boyfriend. To someone who’s not going to judge him or anything. Or at least, not clearly show judgement. He wants to talk about it to Max, or Jonathan, or Steve. But Jonathan’s busy at college, and Max and Steve are hours away, and Will doesn’t really feel like calling them and standing in the middle of the kitchen while venting about his issues.

He wishes he were in Hawkins. That would make it so much easier to talk to people when he needed to. He didn’t have friends here, not ones that wouldn’t say something to Corey the second they got a chance.

Corey sighs, staring at Will’s sad face, and then nods. “Okay, fine. But I’m here if you change your mind. You have my number. Bye, babe.” Corey kisses Will before walking off to his car. Will goes over to his own, unlocking the car and allowing El to say goodbye to her friends and finally get in.

When Will gets to the house, he’s greeted by Hopper telling him someone’s on the phone for him and pointing at the kitchen. Will drops his things in the entryway and goes over to the kitchen, grabbing the phone from Joyce with a tired smile, and putting it up to his ear. “Hello?” He asks, only having to wait a second for a response. “Heya, Will. It’s Max!” Will laughs, turning to lean against the wall next to the phone. “Hey, Max. What’s up?” 

“I just wanted to talk about that thing you were telling me about when you were here. Did you end it?” Will sighs, staring at his mother, who’s baking something, probably brownies from the looks of it. “Yeah, I did.” He lies, but this lie sounds much more genuine than the others he’s told that day. “That’s good. I’m proud!” Will can practically hear the smile in Max’s voice, and he feels bad for lying, but it’s better this way. Better that no one knows. “Yeah. And I’ve got a boyfriend.” Max squeals, so loud Will has to pull the phone away from his ear for a second.

“That’s so good! Oh my God! What’s his name? What’s he like? Can I meet him next time you guys come down? For winter break?” Will laughs at Max’s excitement. “His name’s Corey, he’s really nice, like _super_ nice, I don’t know if you can meet him, though. We just got together, so I don’t know about him coming to Hawkins with us for winter break.” Will says, answering all of Max’s questions. 

“Fine, but if you’re still together, I expect to meet Corey come winter break. Got it?” Will nods even though Max can’t see him. “Yes, got it.”

The two talk for a few more minutes, just catching up a bit, and then finally hang up.

✰✰✰

_December 19, 1986_

Turns out, Will and Corey do end up staying together until winter break. A few days before school lets out for the break, Will asks Corey if he’d like to come to Hawkins, Will’s hometown, with them for Christmas, and Corey says he’ll have to ask his parents. An hour after Will gets home from school, Corey calls, and says, with a smile, that he’s allowed to go as long as he calls his parents everyday. 

And that’s where they are now. Will’s driving carefully on the snowy road, David Bowie playing softly from the speakers, as Corey sits in the passenger seat and El in the backseat. They’re only a few hours away from Hawkins, supposed to arrive by dinnertime. And they’ll be staying where they usually are, the Wheelers’ house. Which is going to be kind of awkward, considering Will never _officially_ ended things with Mike, he just went and got a boyfriend. A boyfriend that’s really nice and didn’t dump him after they messed around, but one he’s just not that connected to. 

He pretends to be, though, and hopes his feelings for Mike’ll go away soon. So far they haven’t budged, not even a bit, but it’s only been a few months! They’ll go soon. ‘Till then, Will’s gonna stay with Corey, they’re gonna go on dates, and Will’s gonna pretend he loves Corey as much as Corey loves him.

Yeah, love. 

Corey had said he loved Will three weeks ago, at eight forty five PM, laying in Will’s bed. Joyce and Hopper were on a date, and El was at a friend’s house, so the two had messed around a bit, like teenagers do, you know. And then three minutes after Will put on his pajamas and got back in bed, exhausted, Corey had cupped Will’s cheek and said it. Those three words. And then he had assured Will he didn’t have to say them back if he wasn’t ready, and Will smiled, kissed him, and said he just wasn’t ready for that, before turning over and going to sleep, despite it not being that late.

Since then, Corey’d only said it two times. Once while the two were stargazing at Corey’s house, laying up on his roof and pointing out the different constellations. The other time had been purely accidental, but genuine, while they were shopping at a bookstore, and Will had picked out a book he thought Corey would like, and Corey had read the description on the book and said “Yeah, I think I would like it. This is why I love you, Will. You know me, probably better than I know myself.”

And Will hadn’t said it back yet, but everytime, after Corey said it, Will would look at him awkwardly and Corey would assure him it was okay if he wasn’t ready to say it yet. Love is a big word, and it takes longer for some people to say it than others. Love is a commitment, a _long_ commitment, and some people just aren’t ready for it yet. Corey’s assumed Will’s one of those people.

He’s not one of those people, he’d always be the one to say love first, in any relationship where it was true. But it was just easier for Corey to think he was one of those people than for Will to explain he wasn’t over his best friend.

“Hey, can we stop at that Arby’s there? I’m fucking starving.” El asks, pointing at the Arby’s they’re about to pass. Will nods and puts the turn signal on, rolling into the drive thru and looking back at her. “What do you want?” She tells him her order and when they get up to the speaker he tells the worker what El wants, and then what he and Corey want.

It’s only ten minutes before they’re back on the road, with Will trying his hardest to eat and drive at the same time. Not the safest, but he manages.

Three hours and twelve minutes later, Will’s car is the last to roll into the Wheelers’ snowy driveway. There’s a small, melting snowman in the front yard, but otherwise the house looks the same as always. American flag hanging from the front porch, curtains of every window open, front door shut tight. Will shuts the car off, grabs the trash from Arbys, and gets out of the car. Corey grabs both of their bags and El grabs hers, and then they’re at the front door.

“Just a warning, my whole friend group’s here, and they’ve heard of you, so you’re gonna be bombarded.” He states, reaching out for the doorknob. “How many people are here in total?” Corey asks, leaning over and looking in the living room window as discretely as possible. “Uhh, at least ten, including us.”

Will opens the door, and as expected, the Party’s there waiting for him. “Will!” Max shouts, lunging forward and dragging Will into a hug. “Good to see you too. Can I please throw these bags away, or…” Max pulls away and lets Will stalk off to the kitchen to throw the bags away. 

He comes back and introduces everyone to Corey, who looks a bit overwhelmed, but otherwise okay. “Yeah, so, here’s my friends, Lucas, Max, Dustin, I don’t know where Mike is. Over there is Steve-” Will’s cut off as Steve, like Max, lunges toward him and hugs him. “Yeah, okay, uh, Steve, Robin’s over there, Nancy, Mike’s older sister, Holly, Mike’s younger sister, and Karen and Ted, Mike’s parents. I think that’s everyone?” Corey looks around at everyone and shrugs. “I think so.” 

“Cool, so, Steve get the fuck off me,” Steve sighs but lets go of Will finally and slinks back over to where Robin’s leaning against the wall. “Yeah, uh, Max and Lucas are dating, I think, I don’t know, they’re very off and on. Jonathan and Steve like each other but don’t want to do long distance. El’s dating Mike, which is…” Will sees Mike finally emerge from the basement. “Right there, curly hair.” Corey nods.

“That everyone?” Will nods. “Yeah.”

“Holly likes to play Barbies, but a warning if you play with her, she won’t ever let you leave. Other than that she’s nice. Also my friend group’s called The Party, because we play Dnd.” Will explains, grabbing Corey’s hand and dragging him over to Mike. As soon as Mike looks over and sees him, he doesn’t seem happy, but he doesn’t say anything. “You play dungeons and dragons?” Corey asks Will, who nods. “Yeah, not much anymore but we still do sometimes. Is that lame?” Corey shakes his head.

“No, it’s cute. Teach me how to play?” Will smiles at Corey, happy he’s interested in trying the things Will likes. “Sure, in a minute. First come meet Mike because he’s my best friend and you two haven’t even met each other.”

“Mike, this is Corey.” Mike just scowls at the tall boy holding Will’s hand. Will sighs. “Corey, Mike. Sorry, he’s an asshole.” Mike scoffs, pushing himself off the wall he was leaning against. “ _I’m_ the asshole? You didn’t even tell me you had a boyfriend all of a sudden.” Will stares at Mike. He knew something would happen, but God, he hadn’t expected it to go from zero to one hundred so suddenly. “Why does it matter? You never called, so why do you care?” Will shouts back.

“Because, I’m your best friend! I thought you would at least tell me you were into guys!” Mike shouts, his curls shaking around as he speaks. “I figured you would know, if I recall correctly, you literally said to me, two summers ago, that it’s, and I quote, ‘Not my fault you don’t like girls!’” Everyone’s staring now, Will can tell. If it wasn’t the silence, it was the feeling of lasers burning into his skin. “I was just saying that. I didn’t think you actually didn’t like girls.” Mike says, not shouting anymore. 

“Well, I don’t. Why is it such a big deal?” Mike shakes his head. “It’s not!” Will stares at him for a second again. “It is, because you’re fucking yelling at me. Are you homophobic or something?” Will wishes he could just say Mike’s into guys, could just shout to that there’s no reason for Mike to be making a big deal out of this because he’s into guys too. “No, God no, I’m not homophobic.” Will doesn’t know what else to say. There really isn’t anything else to say. He turns to Corey. “Welcome to the Party, Corey.” He says sarcastically, grabbing Corey’s hand and dragging him down to the basement to teach him how to play Dnd.

He avoids the couch, because he’s sure it hasn’t been cleaned since him and Mike had sex a few months ago, and instead goes for the cramped table they play Dnd at. The board and everything’s already set out, so Will lets Corey go ahead and pick out his character and everything. They don’t get too far into the game, because for one, Mike’s the ones that makes the campaigns and stuff, so they don’t have one to play, and for two, dinner’s finished cooking soon after they go down there. 

Corey seems happy with the bonding time with Will nonetheless, thanking him for teaching him to play Dnd, even though he couldn’t understand it that well. 

Dinner’s tense after the argument Mike and Will had earlier. Everyone just tiptoes around the thick atmosphere, the tension, and talks about various things. Mostly just asking Corey questions about himself. Corey, what’s your favorite color? Forest green. Corey, what’s your favorite movie? The Breakfast Club, cheesy, but that’s it. Corey, when’s your birthday? January 24th. Corey, Corey, Corey.

The questions don’t end until later that night, when everyone starts to break up to go to bed. Nancy goes to her room, Jonathan, Steve, and Robin take the Wheelers’ only air mattress in the living room, even though it’s cramped. Hopper and Joyce take the guest room, Karen goes to her room, Ted sleeps in his chair, Holly goes to her room, and the Party, including Corey, sets out sleeping bags in the basement.

Will lays in his for hours, cuddled up against Corey in his own, but not able to sleep. He knows Mike isn’t asleep, either. Mike’s angry, for some reason. The emotion’s thick in the air, but neither of the boys talk about it, fearing the possibility of waking up the others around them. 

Mike finally stands at some point around one AM, padding across the floor and quietly up the stairs. There’s the sounds of him shuffling around, putting his coat and shoes on, and then the front door opens and shuts. Will knows to follow. He stands, trying his best not to wake Corey and thanking God, if there is one, for making Corey a heavy sleeper.

He walks up the stairs as Mike just did, puts on his own coat and shoes, and joins Mike outside. Mike’s standing on the sidewalk, in the small amount of snow laying on the ground, and staring out at the road. He turns to face Will when he walks out, though.

“Boyfriend, huh?” He asks, clearly agitated at the very least. Will sighs, his breath fogging in the air in front of him. “Girlfriend you cheated on, huh?” He retorts, not in the mood to take Mike’s shit right now. Mike laughs dryly as Will joins him, standing on the sidewalk. “You helped me cheat on her.”

“I didn’t want to.” Will mutters, glaring at Mike. “You _knew_ I wouldn’t be able to say no that day you walked into my room and kissed me. And then I told you, over and over, for _months_ , that we should end it. I tried to end it three times. You basically manipulated me back into it.”

Mike scoffs, looking down at Will. “ _Manipulated_ you?!”

Will nods. “‘Oh, Will, it’s only for a little longer! I’ll break up with her soon! Today just wasn’t the right time!’ ‘No, don’t leave, I love you, I don’t love El! Without you I’m so _lonely_ , Will.’” He imitates, lowering his voice even though Mike’s voice isn’t that much deeper than his own. 

“You agreed with it.” 

“I never said yes to anything! I just let you do whatever, because if I said yes, it would mean this would all be a reality. Or at least, that was my thought process. But it’s been a reality, ever since Jonathan found out.” Mike turns abruptly, grabbing Will by the shoulders. “Jonathan knows?” He whispers, glancing toward the dark house. Will nods, prying himself out of Mike’s grasp. “He’s not gonna tell. He’s known for like the past year.” 

Mike starts pacing, walking a few feet away and then coming back. Doing it again. Again. Again. When he comes back towards Will for the fifth time, Will grabs him and stops him from walking away again. “He’s not gonna tell. Calm down.” 

Mike glares down at Will, anxiety radiating off him. “You don’t know that.” Will lets go of Mike, convinced he won’t try to walk away again. “He hasn’t for a year.” 

“Okay, so we’re good. No one except him knows.” Mike mutters to himself. Will nods, not telling Mike that Max knows, too. Mike sighs and, now calm, places his hands on Will’s waist. Will already knows what’s going to happen, but he doesn’t care. It’s late, one kiss, no one’ll know.

Mike leans down, and Will leans up to meet him. Their lips touch, and Will never wants to let go of Mike as he wraps his arms around Mike’s shoulders. He’d forgotten how addicting Mike’s touch, his kiss, was. Now he remembers.

Neither boy hears the front door open.

“Will?” The two bolt away, looking at the door, where Corey stands. He looks absolutely heartbroken.

“I said I loved you.” He says to Will, disbelieving. He knew Will was distant, but he figured maybe he was just trying to get over someone or he had previous bad relationships and needs time. But now he knows the truth. Will never liked him. He had been cheating this whole time.

“Corey, wait- Please let me just- explain.” Corey shakes his head, a few tears glistening in the moonlight as they drift down his face.

“You’re a dick, Will. I said I loved you, and you didn’t say anything. I was fine with that. I understood. I understood when you were distant some days, ‘cuz I just figured, maybe a bad history with relationships or something. But the whole time, you were sucking face with some guy behind my back.” Corey says, sniffling. He’s trying to seem strong, not break as he stands in the doorway. Will shakes his head, taking a few steps toward Corey. The snow crunches under his feet, the only sound other than Corey’s crying as Will tries to think of what to say.

“Corey, please.” Will’s voice breaks, a lump in his throat forming as Corey shakes his head and walks back into the house. Even though Will didn’t like Corey like that, in a relationship way, he still liked him in a friend way. 

“Will-” Mike starts after a minute of silence, the two just standing in the cold darkness. Will holds up a hand in his direction, shutting him up. “Don’t Mike. Just don’t.” He states, walking back towards the house. He kicks the snow off his shoes before entering. He sheds his coat and shoes next to the door messily and goes down to the basement. Corey’s not in his sleeping bag, which has been moved far away from Will’s, but the bathroom in the basement has light illuminating from under the door, so he must be in there. 

Will looks around the room at his friends, sleeping peacefully, and slips into his sleeping bag. He closes his eyes, and imagines a scenario where none of this had ever happened. Where he’s happily with Mike, where El’s happily with someone else and Corey is still Will’s friend. And that’s how he falls asleep.

✰✰✰

Will doesn’t leave the Wheelers’ house for the rest of his time there. He avoids Mike and any conversations Mike tries to strike up. Corey avoids him, and leaves Will to be the one to explain to everyone that the two broke up. Jonathan gives Will a disappointed, knowing look, because he knows they would’ve broken up only because of Mike. 

Will gets a nice little lecture from Jonathan later that night, which is when he explains Mike kissed him, and he hadn’t had time to pull away before Corey came out. Jonathan had responded with the fact that Will never should have followed Mike outside, and Will knows that, but the damage is done.

El drives the car back to the Byers residence, dropping Corey off on the way there. New Years comes and goes, and then school’s back again.

And then Valentines Day comes, which is when El gets a cute little package from Mike with a letter and chocolate in it. Will gets nothing except dirty glares from Corey and his friends. 

Easter, end of grade testing, the end of school. They all pass in a blur. Will spends half the summer alone in his room, sulking by himself, until the Party, or at least, some of it, makes the long drive to come visit Will and El. Dustin goes back to his camp so he can’t come, and Mrs. Sinclair wouldn’t let Lucas drive all that way without an adult. So it ended up just being Mike and Max.

Mike makes a beeline for Will’s room, not even saying hi to El on his way there. He’s determined to fix what he damaged with Will, no matter what.

**~Eleven~**

El opens her previously closed bedroom door to reveal a smiling Max Mayfield, hair tied back into a ponytail save for a few stray strands that must have escaped. They frame her face perfectly, amazingly enough. El smiles right back at her best friend and moves out of the way to allow the fiery haired girl to enter.

Max drops her purple duffle bag on El’s floor, near the closet, before walking over and flopping down on the bed. Her hair flows out around her head, as best as it can when it’s tied away, at least. 

She turns to El after a moment of staring at the water stained ceiling. “Okay, whatcha wanna do? We’ve got a bit of time to do dumb stuff before dinner.” She states, sitting up. Max adjusts her rainbow striped shirt before leaning back on her hands as she stares at El. El thinks for a moment, before thinking of the perfect idea. Her mouth quirks up into a small smile as she begins to speak, but Max seems to be on the same wavelength because she’s smiling too, and she’s speaking before El can.

“We should spy on someone!” They announce at the same time, before laughing as Max stands and walks towards El. She pinches the brunette lightly on the shoulder. “Pinch poke, you owe me a coke.” She says, the dumb thing they always say after they jinx. El rolls her eyes, pinching Max right back. “Yeah right, you owe me a sprite.” Max wrinkles up her face as she always does, shaking her head. “Sprite is nasty.” She states, earning an eye roll from the brunette.

“Let’s just do this. Wanna do the spin the bottle to decide who like we always do?” Max nods. “I’ll go get a bottle. Be right back.” She states, leaving the room almost immediately after. El watches the redhead leave before going over to her desk and quickly making the paper with four options; Mike, Will, Hopper, and Jonathan. 

Max comes back just a few minutes later, as El is sitting down on her bed. She places the bottle on the paper, before moving across the room to change the radio from the pop hits to static. El grabs the bottle as Max sits down, and gives it a spin.

It lands on Mike.

She smiles deviously, picking the red bandana off of her bed and tying it around her eyes. “Here we go.” She states, before beginning to focus on her boyfriend.

She’s in the same place as always, that dark area with water on the floor. Mike is in front of her, sitting on a bed. Will’s bed. He’s awfully close to someone, stroking the person’s cheek and whispering something to the person. El recognizes the person as she walks closer. It’s Will.

She continues to walk, slowly and quietly, like they’ll hear her. She knows they can’t, that they won’t hear her, but she still takes precaution, still sneaks towards them.

Her eyes widen in disbelief as she gets closer, watching Mike go in for a kiss. It quickly gets heated, with Mike’s hand in Will’s hair, Will’s hand around Mike’s neck. El’s smile drops. 

Her eyes burn with tears, her neck getting tighter with that familiar lump that always shows when she’s about to cry. She reaches up, yanking the bandana off her eyes. Max’s face goes from happy to concerned in a second when she sees the tears in her best friend’s eyes.

“El? What happened? What did you see?” El doesn’t respond, dropping the bandana on the bed and speed walking out of the room. She hears Max follow her, but pays no attention to the redhead right now. She’s got bigger things to deal with right now.

El makes a beeline to Will’s room, yanking the door open when she gets to it. Mike and Will stumble apart quickly, Will almost falling off the bed as he does. But it’s too late, El’s seen all she’s needed to see.

She steps over Will as she goes over to Mike, pushing him harshly first before speaking at all. “I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!” She screams, and Mike just lets her. He just sits, and he takes it. Because she knows he knows he deserves it. “You’re a fucking asshole! I thought you loved me! But you didn’t! You were too busy fucking my brother to love your fucking girlfriend!” She shouts. All the commotion quickly draws the attention of the other people in the house, first Jonathan, then Joyce, and finally Hopper. They all stand in the doorway as El screams at Mike, as Will holds Max back from trying to punch Mike, because she had made a step as though she was planning on it. Will seems to be failing, though, because Max is apparently a lot stronger than he is.

After a minute or two of Max struggling, suddenly, before El knows it, Mike is doubling back, holding his nose. “Maxine!” A voice, one belonging to one of the adults standing in the doorway calls out, before Max is being dragged away from Mike by Hopper. “No! Lemme beat his fucking ass! He fucking deserves it!” Max shouts as she’s dragged away, thrashing around in Hopper’s arms. He doesn’t let her go, though.

El finally calms down, stepping away, taking a deep breath, and then running out of the room and out of the house. She doesn’t know where she’s going, and she doesn’t care. She just broke up with her boyfriend of four years. 

**~Will~**

The adults are staring at him and Mike. He doesn’t know what to say. Max and Hopper are angry, Joyce and Jonathan are disappointed. Will feels like he’s going to cry. The lump in his throat, the burning in his eyes. He knew this would happen one day. But he wasn’t ready for it to happen yet.

El’s going to hate him. She’s never going to talk to him again. Joyce isn’t ever going to look at him the same again. Jonathan’s never gonna believe him again, because he had believed, for the past year, that the two had ended things. Hopper’s gonna hate him, too. He’s ruined it all, and for what? For the boy he loved. And it wasn’t even worth it. Mike never loved him back.

Joyce opens her mouth to say something, shuts it, shakes her head, and then walks away. Jonathan follows. 

Hopper glares at Mike, a gaze telling him  _ something _ , and walks away. Mike follows. 

Max and Will are the two left behind. She just stares at him, not knowing what to say or do. Will finally lets the tears in his eyes flow freely from them, down his face. He cries silently, or almost silently, save for his occasional sniffle to keep the gross snot in his nose. He sits on his bed, and he stares at the wall across from him. The drawing of Mike that he finally finished months ago hangs on the otherwise bare wall.

“You told me-” Max cuts herself off. Will nods. “I know. I’m sorry.” He says, voice hoarse. Max sits down next to Will, placing her head on his shoulder. Neither speak. Mike comes back, crying as well, and sits on the other side of Will. 

Will puts his head on Mike’s shoulder. None of the teens speak. 

“I’m sorry, Will.” Mike finally says, staring at the drawing as well. “I shouldn’t have been such an asshole, I should’ve just broken it off with El.” Will reaches his hand over and takes Mike’s in his own. “It’s okay.” Is all he says. “You should apologize to El when she gets back. And Hopper. Not me. I did it too.” 

“I forced it on you. You were right, I manipulated you into staying. I knew you wouldn’t say no.” Will lets out a sob, and turns his head so his face is buried in Mike’s shoulder. Mike doesn’t say anything else, just lets Will cry into his shoulder until he can’t cry anymore. El still doesn’t return. Jonathan and Joyce come by, asking to talk to Will, and he gets another lecture. One from each of them. And then he apologizes about a million times. Joyce is understanding, she hugs him and tells him it’s okay. Everyone makes mistakes.

This is just a really big mistake. And one only him and Mike can fix. This time, for once, no one else can help him fix this. He’s alone in his choices here, can’t even get advice because what sort of advice can someone give in this situation other than ‘Just apologize’?

Will’s family leaves the room, and he sits there alone for a bit. The front door opens, there’s talking downstairs, and the someone’s stomping up the stairs and into Will’s bedroom. He knows it’s El, but he doesn’t look at her as she shuts the door and sits on the bed next to him. His gaze remains on his feet.

He opens his mouth to apologize, but El raises her hand and cuts him off. “Don’t. Mike explained. Everything. He’s the one that needs to apologize.” Will looks up at her, taking in the smudged makeup and red rimmed eyes from crying. “I’m still mad.” He nods. They don’t speak anymore.

✰✰✰

_ June 23, 1987 _

The last day of Mike and Max being there. They were only staying for a week. That week had been tense. Mike apologized to El but still stayed away from Will. Max was still angry, and always got a visible look of pride on her face when she saw Mike’s bruised nose from where she had punched him. It hadn’t been broken, just bruised.

Will, on the other hand, always felt guilty when he saw it. If he had just set boundaries with Mike, or said no the first time they kissed, or really just did  _ something _ , then Mike would’ve never gotten punched. El would never have walked in on her boyfriend cheating on her. 

Will decides, as he sits at his desk and works on a sketch, a remake of a drawing he made  _ years _ ago of a wizard shooting fireballs at a dragon, that he’s going to make everything okay. And he’s going to make sure it happens by six o’clock that night, when Mike and Max are leaving.

He closes his sketchbook, putting away his colored pencils and grabbing a notebook and a pencil, and he makes a plan.

**_Operation make everything okay again_ **

**_Step 1: Apologize to everyone_ **

**_Step 2: Set El up with her crush, Jenny_ **

**_Step 3: Admit my feelings to Mike and hope we can still be friends, or more_ **

**_Step 4: Either sulk because Mike hates me now, or celebrate because he doesn’t_ **

Once he’s gotten the plan laid out, he does everything. First apologizing to El, even though she said not to. The he apologizes to Max and Jonathan for lying. Then Hopper and Joyce for helping Mike cheat on El and breaking her heart. And finally to Mike, for ruining his and El’s relationship. He even calls Corey and apologizes to him. In the end, everyone except Hopper accepts his apologies and Jonathan and Joyce even  _ assure _ him it’s okay, because everyone makes mistakes.

Then Will works on part two. He calls Jenny using the number Corey gave him, which he asked for after apologizing about a million times. 

Someone picks up after a few rings. 

“Hello?” A female’s voice, but not Jenny’s. Someone else’s that Will doesn’t recognize.

“Hi, uh, can I talk to Jenny?” There’s silence for a second, and then some shuffling around, and then someone else picks up. “Hello?” This time, it’s Jenny’s voice. 

“Hey, Jenny, it’s Will. I need to uh, ask you something.” He glances out the door of the kitchen, luckily no one’s around. He’s trying to keep this date on the down low, so it’s a surprise for El. Hopefully one she’ll enjoy.

“What’s up?” She asks. “I was wondering if you’d be willing to go out with my sister? She kinda sorta likes you. And I fucked up really bad, and I apologized but I really wanna make it up to her. Don’t say yes just out of pity, though.” Jenny’s silent. Will thinks she’s about to scream at him for even suggesting such a thing when he broke her friend’s heart. But she doesn’t. “El?” She asks. 

“Yeah, El.” She’s silent again. “Sure, I’d be willing to give it a try. She’s cute, and seems nice. When and where?” Will thinks for a second, trying to come up with the best place. There’s not many places to go in the small town Will moved to. There’s more than there were in Hawkins, but not by much. And there’s not even many of those places that El likes and would genuinely enjoy.

“How about that little restaurant right outside of town? It’s like family owned, some pizza place? She’s shown interest in that place before but never actually been there. And I guess at maybe five thirty? Dinner time.” Jenny sighs. “Yeah, sure, I’ve been there. Pretty good, not too expensive. I can do five thirty. See her then, I guess.” And then she hangs up. Will sighs and hangs up the phone, looking out the doorway to make sure no one heard. Luckily, there’s still no one nearby, so if anyone did hear then they didn’t hear much.

Will goes back to his room and takes out another piece of paper, writing a note to slide under El’s door. 

**_El, I still feel really really bad for what I did with Mike. I was thinking maybe dinner? My treat, just you, though. I don’t know how much money it’ll cost, so here’s some of my savings, just keep the change, and enjoy the dinner. Dress nice, I asked some friends a while back and heard it’s a bit of a nicer place. So I guess a dress? Not super super nice, but still pretty nice. Okay, I’ll stop now. Enjoy the dinner, though. -Will_ **

He includes a a twenty and three tens from his piggy bank and slips it under El’s door. Step two completed.

Step three is a bit harder to start up. Anytime Will enters the same room as Mike, Mike takes the soonest opportunity to leave. So it’s a bit of a challenge to finally get him in the same room, blocking the only exit, and alone at that.

But Will manages by chasing Mike around the house and into his room, and then leaning against the door. The only way Mike would be able to leave is to jump out the window. Which he certainly looks like he’s considering, but if he attempted that Will might just have to give up on this plan. 

“Will, please just let me leave. It’s for the better, okay?” Will shakes his head, crossing his arms over his chest and staring harshly at Mike. “You’re not leaving until we talk.” He states, and Mike sighs. “Will-” He cuts Mike off. “You’re my best friend, you can’t avoid me forever.” Will states. Mike sighs again, sitting down in Will’s desk chair. “Fine, okay. Talk.” 

Will takes a deep breath. He’s spent so long thinking about the day he admits his feelings, but now that the day’s come, he’s not sure what to do, how to word it. He’s lost. 

“I like you. Actually, scratch that. I love you. I mean it. I’m in love with you. Like head over heels. And I get if you’re not, I was probably just an experiment or something, but I needed to get that off my chest because it’s been weighing me down for the past seven years and I was tired of the weight.” Step three, done. Mike just stares at Will, trying to think of what to say. Should he admit his feelings, too? Is this just a trick? Should he just say  _ fuck it _ and kiss Will? They’ve kissed before, even had sex, there’s no reason to be afraid of kissing him. Except he is, because now the kiss would have feelings behind it, feelings that they both know about and acknowledge.

Mike glances over at Will, and despite how he’s trying to keep it cool, he’s obviously panicking. His face shows it all. The fear that now Mike hates him, will never talk to him again.

“I love you, too.” Mike murmurs, fiddling with his fingers nervously. The confessions take the weights off the boys’ chests, but now rest heavily in the room, making the atmosphere tense and nervous. And it leaves a question both of the boys want to ask, but are too afraid to.

_ What now _ ?

Will takes another deep breath, finally leaning away from the door and standing up straight. “What now?” He asks after a minute of silence. Mike shrugs. “Just kiss already!” A muffled voice shouts on the other side of the door. Will opens it to reveal Max and El crowded around the door. They, oddly enough, don’t look upset. They look excited, giddy for the two boys to get together, for real now. To put a label on themselves. 

To date.

“C’mon, kiss him!” Max exclaims, pushing Will in Mike’s direction. Will stumbles a bit, but otherwise doesn’t move. Max sighs and rolls her eyes, pushing Will again. He stumbles a few inches closer. “I swear to fuck I will push you across this room, I don’t care if it takes all day.” She states, pushing Will again. Mike suddenly moves, bolting for the door. El’s faster, using her powers to push him away from the door and hold him in place as she walks in and shuts the door behind her, leaning on it as Will had just done to make sure he doesn’t try to run again.

“Michael, please just kiss him, oh my God.” Max mutters, walking over to Mike and pushing him instead of Will now. Mike sighs but doesn’t move. Will finally shakes his head and walks toward Mike, grabbing his face and pulling it down so he’s at Will’s height, and connects their lips. 

Step four, complete.


End file.
